Sooley: The perfect Christmas present Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

John Grisham (Author), Dion Graham (Narrator), Hodder & Stoughton (Publisher)

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The incredible new novel from international best-selling author John Grisham.

ONE MAN. ONE HOPE. ONCE CHANCE TO BECOME A LEGEND.

One man

Seventeen-year-old Samuel Sooleyman comes from a village in South Sudan, a war-torn country where one third of the population is a refugee. His great love is basketball: his prodigious leap and lightning speed make him an exceptional player. And it may also bring him his big chance: he has been noticed by a coach taking a youth team to the United States.

One hope

If he gets through the tournament, Samuel's life will change beyond recognition. But it's the longest of long shots. His talent is raw and uncoached. There are hundreds of better-known players ahead of him. And he must leave his family behind, at least at the beginning.

One chance

As American success beckons, devastating news reaches Samuel from home. Caught between his dream and the nightmare unfolding thousands of miles away, 'Sooley', as he's nicknamed by his classmates, must make hard choices about his future. This quiet, dedicated boy must do what no other player has achieved in the history of his chosen game: become a legend in 12 short months.

Global best-selling author John Grisham takes you to a different kind of court in this gripping and incredibly moving novel that showcases his storytelling powers in an entirely new light.

Listening Length

10 hours and 27 minutes
Author

John Grisham
Narrator

Dion Graham
Audible release date

27 April 2021
Language

English
Publisher

Hodder & Stoughton
ASIN

B08WJHHB78
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	10 hours and 27 minutes
Author	John Grisham
Narrator	Dion Graham
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	27 April 2021
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B08WJHHB78
Best Sellers Rank	13,849 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 92 in Political Thrillers (Audible Books & Originals) 606 in Political Thrillers (Books) 9,569 in Teen & Young Adult (Books)

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2 star		5%
1 star		5%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Kotuku

A Waste of Reading Time!

Reviewed in Australia on 26 May 2021

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I have read John Grisham's books for many years and enjoyed them. Not this one!
Sooley is from the Sudan and is chosen to go to America to play basketball. So far so good - a feel-good rags to riches story told, one presumes, by a master story teller. Not the case at all. The incessant detailing of the minutiae of Sooley's life bored me witless. What he ate, what he drank, what he wore, the interminable games of basketball he played and how he played them, the routines he followed day after day. It was like reading someone's diary but someone whose life is as interesting as warm buttered toast. But I kept going - on and on in the hope the story would improve.
Sooley is picked for the draft and all is wonderful - until it's not. I won't ruin it for all the readers who are waiting with bated breath for the denoument but I will say this - you won't believe your eyes. I didn't. I felt cheated to put it bluntly and could hear Grisham chuckling into his bank account as his legion of followers spend good money on this latest effort, to their detriment and chagrin. Nothing worse than an author who takes his devotees for a ride and not in a good way.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

A slam dunk of a story

Reviewed in Australia on 30 May 2021

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I am not a great basketball fan, and was a very, very average player many years ago. Australia has a competition, but it is nothing compared with the popularity of the game in the States.
Now, I do not really understand most basketball terms, but I found my way through this book, and felt the excitement as Sooley began to fire, and The Eagles started to win. It was quite a ride!
It was interesting to mirror the sport with happenings in Uganda on a regular basis, and to keep up with Sooley’s family, and their fight to survive in horrible circumstances. I was reading only yesterday about terrible things happening in Northern Ethiopia right now, and this sounds much like the fighting and horror in South Sudan early in the story. When will the world learn?
Sooley’s death came as a complete surprise, and there was no explanation as to why Jackie gave him four pills, or why he took three. I do think that there is an obligation on clubs and competitions to help young superstars to cope with fame and fortune to prevent them from crashing and burning - the idea of being invincible!
A nice ending, freeing Beatrice and the boys from the camp, and providing them with new lives, new hope, and a future!
Thank you John. I really enjoyed your book!

One person found this helpful

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Denise Harris

Disappointed

Reviewed in Australia on 24 June 2021

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I have followed John Grisham since his first publication and thoroughly enjoyed them all………until now! My fault entirely!! I purchased the book, as it was Grisham’s next novel, without reading a review………… I am not a basketball fan, never have been, never will be and do not understand all the hype around what I consider to be a boring game. The book was readable, I continued to read until the end because I had paid money for it, not because I enjoyed it 🙁

Lesson learned : do not assume that an author will continue in the same vein…….and read a synopsis/review before purchasing next time!

2 people found this helpful

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Wizard42

I Should Have Read The Reviews!

Reviewed in Australia on 21 June 2021

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I wish I had read the reviews on this book but, after all, it was John Grisham! This book was, to put it bluntly, terrible. The storyline was just not there and the details associated with Soorely went into intricate detail for some unknown reason. Whilst basketball is obviously big in the USA it is not as big in the rest of the world so the intimate details about the game that kept coming out meant nothing to me, even though I do enjoy a good game of basketball. I just wish that many American writers realised that there is a big market outside the US that just do not understand US nuances and should write accordingly. In the end, I gave up on this book about 30% of the way through as I could not stand it any longer. I have only done this before with one or two writers and certainly no-one of the stature of John Grisham.

One person found this helpful

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Maz from Melbourne

Bad

Reviewed in Australia on 21 July 2021

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I know nothing about baseball. Even less after skin reading those bits. I have read every book by John Grisham and enjoyed them all immensely. This book was extremely biting. I am pleased that the plight of the South Sudanese has been brought to public attention through this book. NB Biting should be boring.

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Deadly

A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Reviewed in Australia on 26 July 2021

Verified Purchase

Though not a basketball fan, I really enjoyed the way Grisham leads the reader into the minutiae of the sport. Furthermore, the focus on a refugee player from South Sudan, trying to make a new home in the USA for his family, was also insightful. This book kept me enthralled, causing me to burn the midnight oil for several days. His similar book, the Pizza Players, was of a similar standard. I look forward to more such books relating to other sports.

Helpful

Brettw

A Time to Meh

Reviewed in Australia on 2 May 2021

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I find Grisham to be more miss than hit these days. I don’t mind his breaks to tell sports stories but like his more recent legal “thrillers,” I feel like the only writing he’s interested in these days is his publishers check writing. Hoping to avoid spoilers, I found Sooley’s athletic and physical transformation unrealistic. There are quite a few significant loose ends in this novel. And like a lot of his recent novels, Grisham seemed in a rush to finish Sooley. My overwhelming vibe at the end of Sooley was “What was the point?”

One person found this helpful

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HarleyB

Too much basketball

Reviewed in Australia on 22 December 2021

Verified Purchase

I ended up skipping most of the basketball details which I found extremely boring. Shot by shot descriptions of what seemed like a hundred games filled up too much of this book.

I wish the Sudanese issues, the refugee situation, Sooley’s life on campus, the college to pro transition, the immigration procedures to name just some of other plots had received a little more attention.

A wasted opportunity…

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Top reviews from other countries

Shane King

Grisham Should Stick To Courtroom Thrillers

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 May 2021

Verified Purchase

Is John Grisham deliberately trying to alienate his international fans? It certainly looks that way. Eight years ago, he wrote the absolutely appalling baseball novel, 'Calico Joe', which, as an Englishman unfamiliar with the game, I struggled to follow, finishing the book with the opinion that I had just finished one of the worst books I have ever read.

Now, with 'Sooley' ,John Grisham appears to have written the second most tedious book he has ever produced. A totally incomprehensible novel,(to non-basketball fans, at least) taken up with detailed narrative about the basketball matches that the eponymous central character plays in.

As a long-time John Grisham fan, I found this book extremely disappointing, and not of the usual standard that we have come to expect from this author. Unusually for me, seventy-three pages in, I found the book so mind-numbingly boring, I threw it in the bin. Stick to courtroom thrillers in future, Mr Grisham!!!!!!!!!!

75 people found this helpful

Jim

Awful book. The first Grisham I couldn't finish.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 May 2021

Verified Purchase

I pre-purchase Grisham as soon as Amazon lets me know that another novel is coming. Oh, I wish I hadn't wasted my money. This is the most disappointing book the man has ever written. Grisham, supposedly an international author, goes into endless, tedious detail of basketball - a sport that is significant in only three or four countries throughout the world. Chapter after chapter is devoted to move-by-move analysis of a game that most people couldn't care less about.

I buy Grisham for fantastic thrillers about people and the law. I'm guessing that he's either climbed onboard the woke bandwagon or decided that's where the money lies. If he wants to write this type of novel he could at least use a pseudonym - or make it very clear that he has abandoned the genre that made his name.

Unless you're a hard core basketball fan with a desire to understand the implications of a vicious ethnic conflict DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK.

50 people found this helpful

Emarjee

Not what I expected

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 April 2021

Verified Purchase

This is not a typical IF story - no courtroom, no crime,no investigation. It if very full of detail about the game of basketball. If you love basketball this will be of interest i imagine. I have no knowledge of the game, absolutely no interest in it, and understood not a word that was a major part of this book. I was interested in Sooley's story - but did not choose to read such a story and felt cheated that the headline advert of this did not make it clear that it is about basketball.

41 people found this helpful

Robert James

Disappointed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 May 2021

Verified Purchase

Too much detail about basketball,as a Scotsman I didn’t know anything about the game really slow story,all in all not a good book for me.

32 people found this helpful

anoninspain

Good but incomprehensible to non Americans

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 May 2021

Verified Purchase

Like all Grisham books well written and a good story. However as Grisham himself states he is an armchair Basketball fan this means the many sections devoted to game play, player positions etc are not understood unless you are a Basketball fan.. In my opinion this book needs a glossary to explain all this. You need to be a US sports fan to understand all the jargon. Perhaps Mr Grisham forgot he has a worldwide audience?

17 people found this helpful

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Sooley: The perfect Christmas present Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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