The First John Grisham Basketball Novel To Be Released This April

John Grisham points his creative powers towards the field of sports. It's his fourth attempt but the first covering the basketball theme (he's already released two football stories - Bleachers and Playing for Pizza - and one about baseball - Calico Joe - in the past). "I love sports, especially the college games I dreamed of playing in high school. But like those of the other kids in the neighborhood, my dreams were far greater than any discernable talent, and the college recruiters looked elsewhere," - explains the writer.

So John Grisham has made his dreams come true in another manner - by writing a novel called Sooley about an ambitious basketball player Samuel “Sooley” Sooleymon.

In the summer of his seventeenth year, Samuel Sooleymon gets the chance of a lifetime: a trip to the United States with his South Sudanese teammates to play in a showcase basketball tournament. He has never been away from home, nor has he ever been on an airplane. The opportunity to be scouted by dozens of college coaches is a dream come true. Samuel is an amazing athlete, with speed, quickness, and an astonishing vertical leap. The rest of his game, though, needs work, and the American coaches are less than impressed.

During the tournament, Samuel receives devastating news from home: A civil war is raging across South Sudan, and rebel troops have ransacked his village. His father is dead, his sister is missing, and his mother and two younger brothers are in a refugee camp.Samuel desperately wants to go home, but it’s just not possible. Partly out of sympathy, the coach of North Carolina Central offers him a scholarship. Samuel moves to Durham, enrolls in classes, joins the team, and prepares to sit out his freshman season. There is plenty of more mature talent and he isn’t immediately needed.

But Samuel has something no other player has: a fierce determination to succeed so he can bring his family to America. He works tirelessly on his game, shooting baskets every morning at dawn by himself in the gym, and soon he’s dominating everyone in practice. With the Central team losing and suffering injury after injury, Sooley, as he is nicknamed, is called off the bench. And the legend begins.

But how far can Sooley take his team? And will success allow him to save his family?

The novel should enter the stores on April 27.