There's Always This Year

On Basketball and Ascension

By: Hanif Abdurraqib

Narrated by: Hanif Abdurraqib

Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

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

A TIME AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION

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.

©2024 Hanif Abdurraqib (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“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.

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.

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.

Stunning Narration

The narrator, who is also the writer of this stunning Memoir, read this book like a work of art. I enjoyed the inflection of the author's voice as he narrated the beautiful similies and analogies strewn throughout this novel. Beautiful!

Biography of a Baller

Hanif Abdrraqib is a talented story teller. In this book he shares his story with basketball and his love for the game - its triumphs and anguish beautifully aligned with his life growing up in Columbus. Excellently written and masterfully told.

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.

Beautiful!

This spectacular book of poetry-like prose touches my heart directly as someone who also grew up in the last quarter of the 20th century, loves basketball, and also loves a place that others malign and don't understand. I may listen to it again.

Exceeding Expectations

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

Stunning read. The author’s narration is immaculate.

Hanif is an absolute gem. Cherish this book. Come back to it. Every word is poetry.

Astounding

The book is a masterpiece of love and life in Columbus. The author perfectly captures the city in his descriptive prose both positive and less than positive. The history of Columbus sports, in particular, basketball in the city league, was beautiful.