New York Times bestselling author John Grisham takes you to a
different kind of court in his first basketball novel. Samuel “Sooley”
Sooleymon is a raw, young talent with big hoop dreams … and even bigger
challenges off the court.
In the summer of his seventeenth
year, Samuel Sooleymon gets the chance of a lifetime: a trip to the
United States with his South Sudanese teammates to play in a showcase
basketball tournament. He has never been away from home, nor has he
ever been on an airplane. The opportunity to be scouted by dozens of
college coaches is a dream come true.
Samuel is an amazing
athlete, with speed, quickness, and an astonishing vertical leap. The
rest of his game, though, needs work, and the American coaches are less
than impressed.
During the tournament, Samuel receives
devastating news from home: A civil war is raging across South Sudan,
and rebel troops have ransacked his village. His father is dead, his
sister is missing, and his mother and two younger brothers are in a
refugee camp.
Samuel desperately wants to go home, but it’s just
not possible. Partly out of sympathy, the coach of North Carolina
Central offers him a scholarship. Samuel moves to Durham, enrolls in
classes, joins the team, and prepares to sit out his freshman season.
There is plenty of more mature talent and he isn’t immediately needed.
But
Samuel has something no other player has: a fierce determination to
succeed so he can bring his family to America. He works tirelessly on
his game, shooting baskets every morning at dawn by himself in the gym,
and soon he’s dominating everyone in practice. With the Central team
losing and suffering injury after injury, Sooley, as he is nicknamed,
is called off the bench. And the legend begins.
But how far can Sooley take his team? And will success allow him to save his family?
Gripping and moving, Sooley showcases John Grisham’s unparalleled storytelling powers in a whole new light. This is Grisham at the top of his game.
