Everything on the Line

’66. Untreed Reads, 2013. The year is 2043. God and Satan are dining at an Italian trattoria in Purgatory, when Satan challenges God to a wager: At stake is whether Good or Evil will prevail in the world. Both antagonists will choose someone on earth to compete in a winner-take-all athletic competition. If God’s choice wins, Good will prevail forever. If Satan’s choice wins…  They select tennis as the ideal crucible in which to have this ultimate mano a mano sporting test of physical skills and inner strength. Throughout the novel, Italian wunderkind Ugo Bellezza (God’s choice) and American prodigy Jack Spade (Satan’s) battle opponents and their own personal demons—and become the two greatest players in the history of tennis—until, in the final chapter, they clash in a titanic battle at Wimbledon, a cataclysmic and touching dénouement in which (with everything on the line, literally and figuratively) the eternal battle between Good and Evil is ultimately decided.