There's Always This Year

On Basketball and Ascension

De: Hanif Abdurraqib

Narrado por: Hanif Abdurraqib

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A “powerful” (The Guardian) reflection on basketball, life, and home—from the author of the National Book Award finalist A Little Devil in America

“Mesmerizing . . . not only the most original sports book I’ve ever read but one of the most moving books I’ve ever read, period.”—Steve James, director of Hoop Dreams

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Vulture, Chicago Public Library, BookPage

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, The Washington Post, NPR, The Boston Globe, The New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Book Riot, Electric Lit

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD

Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1990s, Hanif Abdurraqib witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron James were forged and countless others weren’t. His lifelong love of the game leads Abdurraqib into a lyrical, historical, and emotionally rich exploration of what it means to make it, who we think deserves success, the tension between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role models, all of which he expertly weaves together with intimate, personal storytelling. “Here is where I would like to tell you about the form on my father’s jump shot,” Abdurraqib writes. “The truth, though, is that I saw my father shoot a basketball only one time.”

There’s Always This Year is a triumph, brimming with joy, pain, solidarity, comfort, outrage, and hope. No matter the subject of his keen focus—whether it’s basketball, or music, or performance—Hanif Abdurraqib’s exquisite writing is always poetry, always profound, and always a clarion call to radically reimagine how we think about our culture, our country, and ourselves.

LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION

©2024 Hanif Abdurraqib (P)2024 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Hanif Abdurraqib again shows us new ways to be a social critic, a dreamer, a historian, and a lover of hoop. But—and this feels especially moving—he shows us how he wonders about, and how he is transformed in the wondering about, what it means to belong to a place. And you know by place I mean the people, the memories, the sorrows, the tomorrows, who are that place. And you know by all that I mean the love.”—Ross Gay, author of The Book of Delights

“Hanif Abdurraqib is one of the finest authors working in America, and this book contains, I would argue, the sharpest, most insightful, most poignant writing of his career. It's incredible. It's fat with emotion and love and earnestness and basketball, four of the very best things, packaged and delivered in a way that only Hanif can.”—Shea Serrano, bestselling author of Basketball (and Other Things)

Love and Basketball

This is about basketball yes but also about love. To love a place and feel that it doesn’t love you back, to try so hard to make it work and won’t until maybe just maybe one day it does. I don’t have the language to describe how much I enjoyed this book. The run on sentences the circling back. Everything. Everything. Listened to the audible and will now be purchasing the book. Excellent. Exceptional. In awe but above all thankful. Thankful for poets that can articulate so beautifully what I haven’t had the language or possibly the courage to articulate myself.

It flows!

I wouldn't say this book is ABOUT basketball. It's more of a memoir that flows through ideas and stories about neighborhoods, home, the love of place, basketball, family, and friends. I had to look at the hard copy to see if the book is written in verse, and was surprised that it's not! The author's reading is poetic. I am like, marginally interested in basketball and not at all interested in poetry, but I loved this book.

You don’t need to love basketball to love this book

This book is a meditation, a prayer, a litany, a love song, an ode…to Ohio, to LeBron, to the Cavs, to basketball, to family, to friends, to love and poetry and, yes, ascension. Fans of Ocean Vuong or Kiese Laymon have to read this book.

Transcendent.

Achingly, searingly beautiful. Even non-sports fans will love Abdurraqib’s prose and performance. While he and I are worlds apart, I found his stories, his struggles, his hopes and dreams to be very relatable.

Fantastic

Thought provoking, fast paced, insightful, warm, inspiring and profoundly original. I have read two other books in this one definitely should be considered for the Pulitzer.

Interesting Read

Thoroughly enjoy the narration. The poetry inside the story was awesome. I will definitely be looking for your poetry book.

This is some of the most beautiful writing I’ve ever read.

Hanif writing is so good that he got me teared up with his description of a dunk. A dunk… ❤️

This book is about home.

I love when poets can competently write prose. Hanif Abdurraqib is one of those poets.

Stunning Prose

An exquisitely beautiful painful read of the subjects most don’t dare to brooch, but should.

Exceeding Expectations

Hanif is great as a narrator. Fantastic addition to his collection of works. Two thumbs up (jump ball pun not intended)