**A riveting exposé of professional tennis by revered journalist Matthew Futterman (of The New York Times and The Athletic), The Cruelest Game offers never-before-reported access to the daily routines, mindsets, and personal trials faced by today’s major stars and tomorrow’s rising newcomers • Best Book of the Summer: Boston Globe, Bloomberg, LitHub, Kirkus“Matt Futterman is one of the clearest modern-day journalistic voices in tennis.... A great...

‘It is difficult to put this book into any category except that it is one of those friendly books that should be on one’s bedside table, where it will scare away into serenity the bogeys that sometimes come in the lonely hours.’ — Times Literary SupplementIn 1939, Malachi Whitaker was living with her family in the Yorkshire manse she had coveted since childhood. After years of poverty, her life of comfort — and success as a writer — had been hard-won. With war loom...