The Sportswriter — Richard Ford

My name is Frank Bascombe. I am a sportswriter.

It is Easter weekend and we are introduced for the first time to Frank Bascombe.

On the surface Frank’s life seems well set: he has a younger girlfriend and a job he adores as a sportswriter. To many men his age, thirty-eight, this would be a cause for optimism, yet Frank feels the pull of longing and the memory of his recent losses – a career has ended, his wife has divorced him, and his elder son has died. In the course of Easter weekend, Frank will lose all the remnants of his familiar life.