Coyote Moon by John A. Miller

After watching his brilliant and close friend Arthur Hodges die, (a world renowned thinker who held an endowed chair of mathematics at MIT), quantum physicist Benny Rhodes has an epiphany: He must quit his job as a university professor and divorce his wife. In what seems like a flash instant, he leaves Boston and travels across the country where he meets a woman who is more than 30 years younger in the parking lot of a drugstore in Oklahoma after their cars collide. The new couple soon find themselves in a trailer park in the Mojave desert, where they meet a strange German couple who believe (or at least the husband does) that they have all come together for a special, perhaps even mystical, reason.

Meanwhile, in Scottsdale, Arizona, a mysterious young man just out of the army, and who has never played formal organized baseball in his life, shows up at the training camp of the Oakland A’s. First dismissed as a nonentity, the player is told flat out that he has no chance of making the team. But when his playing ability reveals him to be a bona fide superstar (some are so shocked by his skill that they wonder if he made a pack with the devil) he is quickly offered a professional contract. Even weirder than his raw talent, however, is his bizarre mathematical ability, and his knowledge of advanced physics. When the player finds himself in the trailer park in the Mojave desert, a debate ensues about whether he is the reincarnation of a scientific genius.

This wonderfully original book was a pure joy to read. With amazing literary skill and a wonderful imagination, John Miller has written a book that is worthy of extensive praise. If this novel were a symphony, it would receive a standing ovation for several minutes from an adoring audience.

5 out of 5 stars