There's Always This Year
On Basketball and Ascension
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Narrated by:
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Hanif Abdurraqib
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By:
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Hanif Abdurraqib
About this listen
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
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 AND THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
©2024 Hanif Abdurraqib (P)2024 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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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)
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Pulitzer Prize, Biography, 2016. Barbarian Days is William Finnegan's memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates it is something else entirely: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life.
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What a Jerk.
- By ML Sadler on 03-06-17
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Thinner Leaner Stronger
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The bestselling fitness book for women who want to lose up to 35 pounds of fat or more and gain whole-body muscle definition in just 3-5 hours per week—and without giving up delicious foods or doing grueling workouts.
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"The Ultimate Female Body", but uses male examples
- By bookWorm on 06-29-15
By: Michael Matthews
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For generations, the book of Genesis has been treated by scholars as a collection of documents by various hands, expressing different factional interests, with borrowings from other ancient literatures that mark the text as derivative. In other words, academic interpretation of Genesis has centered on the question of its basic coherency, just as fundamentalist interpretation has centered on the question of the appropriateness of reading it as literally true.
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What listeners say about There's Always This Year
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- Shrewsie Shrew
- 01-15-25
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.
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- Mónica
- 08-23-24
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.
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- emcibi
- 10-22-24
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.
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- Drew Ullman
- 05-02-24
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.
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- Howard W. Levitin, MD
- 11-18-24
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.
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- Bradley
- 05-03-24
Exceeding Expectations
Hanif is great as a narrator. Fantastic addition to his collection of works. Two thumbs up (jump ball pun not intended)
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- Dawn DiPrince
- 06-05-24
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.
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- Dexter Wolfe Nelson
- 07-24-24
Stunning read. The author’s narration is immaculate.
Hanif is an absolute gem. Cherish this book. Come back to it. Every word is poetry.
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- Jonathan Morales
- 07-19-24
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.
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- Christian
- 07-21-24
OHIO’s Finest
614, 419, 216, even 513. Hanif Abduraqib is gifted with the pen. The most highest honor for a translator of real Life in a real place during a real time. Heaven is a Playground.
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