John Grisham, New York Times bestselling author brought a different kind of court in his first basketball novel. It tells the story of Samuel ‘Sooley’ Sooleymon, a young boy with talent and big dreams, and how he faced even bigger challenges off the court.
Following the familiar Grisham playbook of short chapters, with plenty of foreshadowing, this one is just another hard-to-put-down book.
What Is It About
Samuel Sooleymoon’s dream came true when he was offered a trip to the United States in the summer of his seventeenth year. The trip was to let him and his South Sudanese teammates play in a showcase basketball tournament. He had never been on an airplane, let alone been away from his home. So when the opportunity to be scouted by plenty of college coaches is a chance of a lifetime for him.
The boy is an amazing athlete as he is fast with an amazing vertical leap but the rest of his game needed to be polished on, making the American coaches less than impressed. During the tournament, he received news from home telling him that his father is dead, his sister is missing and his mother and two younger brothers are in a refugee camp. It all happened when a civil war broke out in South Sudan and rebel troops have ransacked his village.
It was only natural that Samuel desperately wants to go home but it was impossible to do so. Partly out of sympathy, the coach of North Carolina Central offered Samuel a scholarship. He then moved to Durham where he enrolled in classes and joined the team while he prepared to sit out his freshman season. Though there are more talented players, Samuel has something no other player do which is a fierce determination to succeed. He did all that so that he can bring his family to America.
He kept on working on his game and practicing every morning at dawn all alone and soon, he was the best in the game. With the Central team losing and suffering a lot of injuries, Sooley was called off the bench and the legend begins.
Sources: Goodreads, The Philadelphia Inquirer