Penguin.com (usa)

Kick the Balls

A Bruising Season in the Life of a Suburban Soccer Coach

Alan Black - Author

Paperback | $15.00 | add to cart | view cart
ISBN 9780452295391 | 272 pages | 26 May 2009 | Plume | 8.26 x 5.23in | 18 - AND UP
Summary of Kick the Balls Summary of Kick the Balls Reviews for Kick the Balls An Excerpt from Kick the Balls
A "hilarious and utterly irreverent tale" (Irvine Welsh) of a year in the life of an abrasive pee-wee soccer coach

Growing up in Scotland, Alan Black learned that soccer was no mere game; it was a matter of life or death. In this harshly hilarious tale, Black, a Glasglow transplant living in suburban California, coaches the Dragons, a peewee team that proves an embarrassment to his beloved sport. They're pampered. They're soft. They've been told by their overprotective parents that (gasp!) "winning isn't everything." Using drills and bombast, Black attempts to whip the team into shape.

Kick the Balls is a sidesplitting memoir of grass stains and free kicks, a no-holds-barred account of one man's bafflement by an alien culture, and a stinging satire of American parenthood. Alan Black's voice-howling from the sidelines-is that rare thing: a fresh, original, winning comic talent.

"Savagely hilarious."
-Po Bronson, author of What Should I Do with My Life?

"Any suburbanite with kids in organized sports will find Black a riot."
-Publishers Weekly


To keep up-to-date, input your email address, and we will contact you on publication

Please alert me via email when:


The author releases another book


   

The Weird Sisters Book Cover image
$15.00 | buy now

The Weird Sisters

Eleanor Brown

This is the "delightful" (People) New York Times bestseller that's earned raves from reviewers everywhere is the story of three sisters who love each other, but just don't happen to like each other very much…
Read the author interview.

The Odds Book Cover image
$25.95 | buy now

The Odds

Stewart O'Nan

In the new novel from the author of Last Night at the Lobster, a middle-age couple goes all in for love at a Niagara Falls casino.
Get the reading group guide.