Theres Always This Year, Hanif Abdurraqib
Theres Always This Year, Hanif Abdurraqib
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There's Always This Year
On Basketball and Ascension

Bestseller

Author: Hanif Abdurraqib

Narrator: Hanif Abdurraqib

Unabridged: 8 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/26/2024


Synopsis

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • #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

WINNER OF 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

About Hanif Abdurraqib

Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His first poetry collection, The Crown Ain't Worth Much, was named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Prize and was nominated for a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. His collection of essays, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, was named a best book of 2017 by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah Magazine, and Pitchfork, among others.


Reviews

Goodreads review by emma on January 20, 2025

fine. i'll admit it. i like sports. and i really, really liked this book. this is much denser than i expected — the language is heavy and poetic. it's well written and demands your attention. ostensibly this is a book about basketball, which rocks, but it's also about so much more: where we come from,......more

Goodreads review by Nathan on May 09, 2024

Will update after next month’s reread for book club, but here’s what you need to know: we are at least considering this for My New Favorite Book™️......more

Goodreads review by Meike on March 21, 2025

Now Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism 2024 Abdurraqib is clearly some sort of alchemist, amalgamating poetry and cultural criticism with no discernible structure whatsoever, but the result are texts that just slap: Aesthetically beautiful, intellectually sharp, surprising......more

Goodreads review by Amy on November 21, 2024

second read: it’s so so so good I wished I loved anything as much as Hanif loves Ohio — He does something with this book that I haven’t seen him do before. It’s deeply vulnerable, not just in how he discusses loss or love, but in how he discusses his own past. This definitely falls into the memoir ca......more

Goodreads review by Tomes And on March 13, 2024

I read an entire book about basketball, but it was really all about grief with a bunch of basketball statistics scattered throughout. Did I just cry about LeBron James? OMG, Hanif, HOW DO YOU DO IT?? Full review to come.......more


Quotes

“Hanif Abdurraqib writes: You are, in part, who loves you. I’ve never read a book more full of love—heartbreaking, poetic, rapturous—than There’s Always This Year. He loves basketball, his court, his block, his city, but most of all, his people, and he beautifully shares it in this indelible and mesmerizing book. Abdurraqib has written not only the most original sports book I’ve ever read but one of the most moving books I’ve ever read, period. . . . Utterly transcendent.”—Steve James, director of Hoop Dreams

“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)

“MacArthur fellow Abdurraqib follows his Carnegie Medal–winning A Little Devil in America with another unique, memoir-propelled, far-ranging, and affecting inquiry. . . . Structured like a game in quarters and minutes, it’s a galvanic drive through the intricacies of family, community, belief, and dreams, . . . Abdurraqib keeps multiple balls in the air as he swerves, spins, and scores, and every thoughtfully considered and vividly described element and emotion, action and moment, ultimately connects. An exhilarating, heartfelt, virtuoso, and profound performance.”Booklist (starred review)

“Lyrically stunning and profoundly moving, the confessional text wanders through a variety of topics without ever losing its vulnerability, insight, or focus . . . A formally inventive, gorgeously personal triumph.”Kirkus Reviews
 
“Cultural critic Abdurraqib returns with a triumphant meditation on basketball and belonging. . . . The narrative works as if by alchemy, forging personal anecdotes, sports history, and cultural analysis into a bracing contemplation of the relationship between sports teams and their communities. This is another slam dunk for Abdurraqib.”Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
“Beautifully written . . . Fans of Abdurraqib and basketball will enjoy this book. . . . He melodically combines topics.”Library Journal