Kurt Vonnegut's first novel Player Piano, published in 1952, heralded the beginning of one of the most diverting and provocative adventures in modern American fiction. Vonnegut went on to write novels that perhaps had greater formal skill and technique, but Player Piano is a tour de force of imaginative insight into modern life and a shrewd satire of American progress.

Avalon High

Takao Taniguchi transferred from the famous Aoba Gakuin to Sumiya No.2 Junior High, where the baseball team was very weak. Still wearing his Aoba uniform, he instantly became the talk of the school. However, with the eyes of the entire team on him, he slipped up again and again! That wasn’t surprising, because he’d only been a reserve player with Aoba’s second stringers. He’d only ever dreamed of being a regular player. Regardless of the disappointment of the other players, he secretly practiced hard and was eventually rewarded with the position of captain. It was the birth of a new team under Captain Taniguchi! This classic baseball manga remains forever in memory. A moving story of the successive captains, Taniguchi, Marui and Igarashi, as they build their team into winners through blood, sweat and tears. A winner of the Shogakukan Manga Award, this is an undying tale of the unknown players at Sumiya No.2 Junior High and their devotion to baseball.

Takao Taniguchi transferred from the famous Aoba Gakuin to Sumiya No.2 Junior High, where the baseball team was very weak. Still wearing his Aoba uniform, he instantly became the talk of the school. However, with the eyes of the entire team on him, he slipped up again and again! That wasn’t surprising, because he’d only been a reserve player with Aoba’s second stringers. He’d only ever dreamed of being a regular player. Regardless of the disappointment of the other players, he secretly practiced hard and was eventually rewarded with the position of captain. It was the birth of a new team under Captain Taniguchi! This classic baseball manga remains forever in memory. A moving story of the successive captains, Taniguchi, Marui and Igarashi, as they build their team into winners through blood, sweat and tears. A winner of the Shogakukan Manga Award, this is an undying tale of the unknown players at Sumiya No.2 Junior High and their devotion to baseball.