Wade Rouse, internationally bestselling author of 13 books, is back with his first memoir in a decade. MAGIC SEASON: A Son’s Story

Wade Rouse, internationally bestselling author of 13 books, is back with his first memoir in a decade. MAGIC SEASON: A Son’s Story (Hanover Square Press; May 3, 2022; hardcover)

In the 1970’s Ozarks, sports, hunting, and fishing defined a boy’s world. But they didn’t define author Wade Rouse’s world, which was instead filled with reading, writing, and cooking. This was a problem for Rouse’s father Ted, a by-the-book engineer who was incapable of the emotional support his gay son so desperately needed. The only thing the two had in common was a love for the St. Louis Cardinals.

When Ted’s health is in decline, Rouse returns home to Southwest Missouri to watch one last season of baseball with his father. Emotions run high on the field as the Cardinals race for the pennant; and on the couch, where Rouse races to make peace before his dad passes on. As Rouse recounts the past and confronts the present, readers may find themselves rooting for reconciliation on one page, then hoping for a final and permanent split on the next.

While sports fans will enjoy the baseball tie-in, this book is also for anyone with a parent, child, relative, or old friend who they continue to love despite the person being very hard to love. Since a perfect parent/child relationship is about as likely as a perfectly pitched game (.01%), Rouse’s story, and the highly-charged themes within it, will strike a chord with nearly every reader.