Jeff Wallach

"The writing is knowing and engaging, wise about its cultural orientations, and driven to discoveries both reassuring and life-enhancing."-Michael Curtis, Fiction Editor Emeritus, The Atlantic"Jeff Wallach is a prodigiously gifted writer-insightful, funny, and always surprising. Mr. Wizard twists and turns like a double helix. When you finish, you'll want to go back to the very first page and experience it all over again, just to see how Wallach pulled it off."-Terri Cheney, author of New York Times bestseller, Manic: A MemoirTwo brothers. One mother. One big question.Two days before her death, Jenny Elliot suggests to her fifty-year-old son Phillip that, being half Irish, he should be more careful about his drinking. Phillip, along with his brother Spencer, has grown up believing they were the fully Jewish-American offspring of Jenny and her late husband who died in the Vietnam War. Was his mother uttering some dementia-inspired fantasy, or was her true character shining through in her last moments to leave the brothers a clue to their real heritage? After her death, Phillip decides to take a DNA test. The brothers set off on a genetic treasure hunt in search of who they really are-and what that might mean. Are they purely products of their genetics; or were they formed more completely by their social interactions and upbringing? Are they merely victims of randomness; or are they some combination of those factors? And who, exactly, is Mr. Wizard?

This is a stunning collection highlighting 'extreme' golf from one of the game's freshest voices: Extreme Personalities, Extreme Destinations (like Baja's Loreto, whose caddie-master has no caddies and whose driving range has only one ball), and many more.

Beyond The Fairway is a guide for getting to the heart of golf and self by measuring a not by the score, but by the overall experience. Going against conventional approaches to golf, disproving that a straight fairway drive is golf's ultimate thrill, golfer and author Jeff Wallach steers his cart into the rough and even dangerous terrain where golf becomes an adventure into the unknown, into the greater mysteries of life, love, friendship, endurance, being a son, and being a man. Each chapter presents the unique physical and spiritual challenges of exotic and exclusive courses around the world from Scotland, Africa, and Thailand to Oregon, Alaska, and Nepal. The book gives an insider's often humorous, sometimes irreverent perspective on the sacred sites and rites of golf, and pros from around the world provide practical tips and insights into the game.