A Little Devil in America

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | A NEW YORK TIMES, TIME, GUARDIAN, WASHINGTON POST, NPR, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, KIRKUS and BOOKRIOT BOOK OF THE YEAR<BR><BR>WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR CRITICISM<BR>LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD<BR>LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION<BR><BR>It might do all of us some good to reconsider what 'making it' even means. <BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>There's Always This Year is a triumph from one of America's most celebrated and insightful writers. It brims with joy, pain, solidarity, comfort, outrage, and hope. No matter the subject, Abdurraqib's exquisite writing is always poetry, always profound, and always a clarion call to radically reimagine how we think about our culture, and ourselves.

**As featured on Barack Obama's Summer 2022 Reading List**<BR><BR>Winner of the Gordon Burn Prize<BR>Winner of the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction<BR>Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award<BR>Finalist for the Pen/Diamonstein-Spievogel Award for the Art of the Essay<BR>Shortlisted for the National Book Award<BR><BR>'Gorgeous' - Brit Bennett<BR>'Pure genius' - Jacqueline Woodson<BR>'One of the most dynamic books I have ever read' - Clint Smith<BR><BR>At the March on Washington, Josephine Baker reflected on her life and her legacy. She had spent decades as one of the most successful entertainers in the world, but, she told the crowd, "I was a devil in other countries, and I was a little devil in America, too". Inspired by these words, Hanif Abdurraqib has written a stirring meditation on Black performance in the modern age, in which culture, history and his own lived experience collide.<BR><BR>With sharp insight, humour and heart, Abdurraqib explores a sequence of iconic and intimate performances that take him from mid-century Paris to the moon -- and back down again, to a cramped living room in Columbus, Ohio. Each one, he shows, has layers of resonance across Black and white cultures, the politics of American empire, and his own personal history of love and grief -- whether it's the twenty-seven seconds of 'Gimme Shelter' in which Merry Clayton sings, or the magnificent hours of Aretha Franklin's homegoing; Beyoncé's Super Bowl show or a schoolyard fistfight; Dave Chapelle's skits or a game of spades among friends.

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<BR><BR>“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<BR><BR>ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Vulture, Chicago Public Library, BookPage<BR><BR>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<BR><BR>WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD<BR><BR>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.”<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION