The Eleventh Man by Ivan Doig

The Eleventh Man by Ivan Doig

Driven by the memory of a fallen teammate, TSU's 1941 starting lineup went down as legend in Montana football history, charging through the season undefeated. Two years later, the "Supreme Team" is caught up in World War II. Ten of them are scattered around the globe in the war's various lonely and dangerous theaters. The eleventh man, Ben Reinking, has been plucked from pilot training by a military propaganda machine hungry for heroes. He is to chronicle the adventures of his teammates, man by man, for publication in small-town newspapers across the country like the one his father edits. Ready for action, he chafes at the assignment, not knowing that it will bring him love from an unexpected quarter and test the law of averages, which holds that all but one of his teammates should come through the conflict unscathed. A deeply American story, The Eleventh Man is Ivan Doig's most powerful novel to date.

Ivan Doig was born in Montana in 1939 and grew up beside the majestic Rocky Mountain Front, which has inspired much of his writing. He is the author of eight prior novels, the most recent of which is The Whistling Season, as well as three works of nonfiction, including This House of Sky, for which he received a lifetime Outstanding Achievement Award from the Western Literary Association. He is based in Seattle.