Meredith H. (mahm) reviewed on 7/4/2022 + 18 more book reviews

What a wonderful book! I follow the UNC Tar Heels basketball team, so I was fascinated to learn more about the actual world of players, their training, their careers, and how schools and the NBA work together. (Grisham admits his aspiration in sports in his book's intro, which is something I would not have imagined, given his history of books about the law, and this is what drew him to this story.) But this is not what the book is about. Sooley is indeed one of the African teen-agers recruited to play college basketball in the US, but his back story is the focus of the book. It was so real and so current that I actually checked with google to see if Samuel was a real person. It is fictional. But the tragedy of his family in the genocide of the south sudan is a tragedy and is what, after all, motivates Samuel (Sooley) to succeed in America. I won't spoil the ending but you must read to the finish if you start this book. It is a treasure for the sports-minded and the sports newbie alike. I fell in love with Sooley and you will too.

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