The world had teeth and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted is the first sentence of this extraordinary new novel.

Eager to escape the bickering of her recently-divorced mother and her older brother, Pete, nine-year-old Trisha McFarland wanders off the main path of the Appalachian Trail between Maine and New Hampshire, where they have embarked on a weekend outing. As she tries to take a short-cut to catch up to her family, she strays further from the trail and deeper into the second-growth, untrodden woods, where she has no means of navigation and little defense against the elements.

Bruised, battered, and riddled with wasp and mosquito bites, Trisha elevates her spirits and preserves her connection with civilization by tuning into the radio station that broadcasts the Boston Red Sox games. She spends her first night alone, listening as her hero — #36, the closing pitcher Tom Gordon, whose jersey and baseball cap she wears on her hiking trip — strikes out the Yankees. She imagines him as her companion, and tunes into his games sporadically, as she braves treacherous slopes and fetid swamps, bacteria-ridden (and vomit-inducing) water, insatiable insects, extremes of New England weather, and many, many, lonely, uncomfortable, terrifying nights. Stalked by an unidentified creature that leaves slaughtered animals and mangled trees in its wake, Trisha bravely follows the river — and her instincts — in the hope of surviving. A classic tale that combines elements of adventure and spiritual awe, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon engages our hearts and minds at the most primal level.

People Magazine

You may not care about Gordonbut you will about Trisha.

Publish Date : 1999