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Bob Mitchell – heart disease survivor, professor, and golf lover – brings together these seemingly disparate parts of himself to create a debut novel that is simultaneously funny, intelligent, and insightful. Match Made in Heaven (Kensington Books, May 2006) opens as Elliott Goodman is being rushed into the OR for emergency heart surgery. When Elliott, his life flashing before him, pleads with God for another chance, He proposes a deal: Elliott will play God in a round of golf. If he wins, he lives; if not…

God then sends down eighteen legendary opponents in His stead, to play golf against Elliott and teach him a few lessons along the way. To defeat these legends and save his life, Goodman must learn something about himself from each opponent and apply it to his golf game and life. James Patterson, New York Times best-selling author, sums it up when he says, “A golf game against God – with the stakes life and death? What a great concept! But it gets even better as Elliott Goodman plays golf with Leonardo da Vinci, W.C. Fields, John Lennon, and others. This daring book is a miracle, and, I think, quite possibly a classic.”

The real magic of Match Made in Heaven comes out as Mitchell captures each character’s style and tone, through their conversation, golf swing, and influence on Goodman. Each chapter is imbued with the opponent’s distinctive personality, from Beethoven’s passion to Lennon’s joy to Poe’s melancholy to the neuroses that could only belong to Freud and the gluttony that could only be Babe Ruth’s. Though this book will certainly speak to the golf lover, one need not be a golf aficionado to appreciate the characters – ranging from their distinct pre-shot waggles to their philosophies on golf – and life-altering lessons they pass along to Goodman. As Kirkus Reviews writes, “A wholly charming hole-in-one.” Ultimately, this is not a book about a game of golf, but a game of golf about life.

If there is anyone in a position to write about and capture each of these unique personalities, Mitchell is the person to do it. He studied at Williams, Columbia, and Harvard, where he received a Ph.D. in French and Comparative Literature. He taught for eleven years at Harvard, Purdue, and Ohio State. He has also served as a creative director at a number of New York ad agencies and spent a year in Tel Aviv as a special consultant on commercial film writing and production. Mitchell has been a dedicated sports fanatic for over fifty years, lettered in three sports at Williams College (soccer, squash, tennis), and has taught tennis professionally. He is also the author of three nonfiction books about sports. Mitchell currently resides in Santa Barbara, California, with his wife, Susan (an artist), and their dogs, Koslo and Mocha (Labrador retrievers).

--Jason Przybylski

http://bobmitchellbooks.com/