5.5" x 8.25", 244 page trade paperback titled THE NATURAL by Bernard Malamud with an Introduction by Kevin Baker/ Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ISBN # 978-0-374-50200-3, Later 27th printing, Copyright 2003/ The Natural is a 1952 novel about baseball by Bernard Malamud, and is his debut novel. The story follows Roy Hobbs, a baseball prodigy whose career is sidetracked after being shot by a woman whose motivation remains mysterious. The story mostly concerns his attempts to return to baseball later in life, when he plays for the fictional New York Knights with his self-made bat "Wonderboy". Based loosely on the shooting incident and subsequent comeback of Philadelphia Phillies player Eddie Waitkus, the story of Roy Hobbs takes some poetic license and embellishes what was a memorable account of a career lost too soon. Apart from both Waitkus and Hobbs being shot by women in a Chicago hotel room (obsessed women they didn't know), there are few other similarities. The book is complete and in FINE condition with some overall light wear.