“As Nemens portrays the life of the team—a pitcher is in thrall to pain pills; players’ wives hold a lingerie party—it starts to seem almost an organism, each constituent part brushing against others in a larger story of competition, survival, and obsession.”

—The New Yorker

“[Nemens] works within the quirky register of the heart, writing about one of her great passions: baseball. She crafts a humorous and emotional novel about a star outfielder, and the coaches, fans and criminals who inhabit the same off-kilter world.”

—Cody Delistraty, WSJ. Magazine

“Emily Nemens’s debut novel about spring baseball, The Cactus League, has all of [Walt] Whitman’s so described snap, go, and fling to it, but it carries with it the elusive spirit of the game, too … As a baseball novel, The Cactus League treads deftly between the conventions, clichés, kitsch, legends, and nostalgia inherent in a sport that is over half the age of the United States itself.”

—Mike Broida, Los Angeles Review of Books

“Baseball is said to be the most literary of sports, inspiring fiction that aims to capture its artistry and symmetry, so a book like The Cactus League that succeeds as a robust social novel hits the elusive sweet spot … Nemens creates an alternative world with nuance beyond the score sheet, rife with ambition and jealousy, disappointment and victory.”

—The National Book Review

“In The Cactus League, baseball remains a sturdy vehicle to contemplate contemporary American culture, in addition to the whole dense spectrum of human relationships … Captivating.”

—Brady Brickner-Wood, Harvard Review

“You don’t have to enjoy baseball (sport, game, or what have you) to find this semi novel-in-stories a richly layered, often tender and generous, exposé of the life of players, fans, and everyone in between … There is more to this book than the best sports reporting: peeling back the curtain, examining the people behind the statistics, and understanding that sometimes the most crucial plays are the ones happening off the field.”

—Sara Cutaia, Chicago Review of Books

“Nemens delivers an engaging, eccentric cast of players, coaches, families, and others who inhabit the world of baseball … From start to finish, Nemens captures the spirit of the game.”

—Nick Ripatrazone, The Millions

“[The Cactus League] showcases a fascinating gallimaufry of characters who swirl around the edges of the springtime ritual … Nemens finds a kind of attenuated hope along with melancholy in these sharply etched character studies that ‘end not with “out three” but “out maybe.”’”

—Bill Ott, Booklist (starred review)

“The Cactus League is not just another baseball novel. I can’t think of another book that so carefully examines the complex ecosystem of professional sport. With both compassion and objectivity, Emily Nemens deftly depicts the rich lives and stories that swirl beneath the ‘meaningless’ innings of spring training.”

—Chris Bachelder, author of The Throwback Special