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The moving and gripping new blockbuster novel from international bestseller John Grisham.<br/><br/>ONE MAN. ONE HOPE. ONCE CHANCE TO BECOME A LEGEND.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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 twelve short months.<br/><br/>Global bestseller 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.

<b></b><b> THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER </b><b></b><b><br/><br/><b>SHORTLISTED FOR FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR & BEST SPORTS WRITING AWARD AT THE 2025 SPORTS BOOK AWARDS</b><br/><b><br/>A TIMES SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR<br/>A TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR<br/>AN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR<br/>AN IRISH INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR</b><br/><br/><b>Fully updated to cover Saudi Arabia's 2034 World Cup bid, the Manchester City charges case and the events of the 2024/25 season.</b><br/><br/><b>'Important, perfectly timed and hugely necessary.' </b><i>The Guardian</i><br/><b>'Football needs this book. A monumental piece of investigative journalism.'</b><i> Irish Times</i><br/><b>'A must-read on how modern football works.' </b><i>Ian Wright</i><br/><b>'Brave, forensic and utterly gripping.' </b><i>Tom Holland</i><br/><br/>______________________________<br/><br/><b>The definitive account of how capitalism and the world's elite corrupted modern football.<br/></b><br/>As the 2022 World Cup in Qatar drew to a close, there was a bitter undercurrent to Argentina's triumph. Throughout the tournament, numerous allegations of sportswashing and financial misconduct had been made against the state of Qatar, moving what had previously been a smaller conversation into the worldwide spotlight.<br/><br/>The question had been asked, who <i>really </i>owns and runs football?<br/><br/>Journeying from Abu Dhabi to Newcastle, and onto London, Paris, Moscow and New York, journalist Miguel Delaney investigates the allegations of sportswashing and misconduct in the beautiful game. The result is a gripping account of how football has been taken over by the world's wealthiest businessmen, state-backed corporations, media tycoons and oil-rich oligarchs.<br/><br/>From Neymar's GBP198 million transfer to Paris Saint-Germain and Abu Dhabi's construction empire in Manchester to failed Financial Fair Play constraints and the dawn of the European Super League, Miguel draws on exclusive interviews and unprecedented access to key stakeholders to produce an all-encompassing expose of modern footballs highest echelons.<br/><br/><b>Authoritative, riveting and eye-opening,<i> States of Play</i> reveals how football has become a tool for the world's elite.</b><br/>______________________________<br/><br/><b><i>'T</i>he moral compass that the game needs.'</b> <i>Andy Brassell</i><br/><br/><b>'In this excellent investigation, Delaney reveals the ugly side of the beautiful game.'</b> <i>Oliver Bullough</i><br/><br/><b>'The most important football book of its generation.'</b> <i>Jack Pitt-Brooke</i><br/><br/><i>'</i><b>Tackles the major issues affecting football today with fearlessness and forensic scrutiny. An important investigation for our times.'</b> <i>Laurie Whitwell</i><br/><br/><b>'A majestic book. The essential guide to how the people's game has become the plaything of the very rich and powerful.'</b> <i>Jonathan Wilson</i><br/><br/>Miguel Delaney's <i>STATES OF PLAY </i>was ranked in the<i> Irish Times </i>bestsellers list the weeks of 11th-18th November & 9th December 2024.</b>

<b>Pablo Escobar had one obsession. Not drugs, not money, not power... football.</b><br/><br/>Narcoball uncovers the incredible story of Colombian football during the early 1990s - shaped by drug lords, rivalries, and ambition. It uncovers a football empire backed by cartels - where victory was a currency of its own, and defeat, a matter of life and death.<br/><br/>This is a different story of Pablo Escobar and his rivals. A tale of clandestine deals that reshaped Medellin's football clubs, where fortunes were won and lost. It unveils the extraordinary bonds that Escobar forged with football's luminaries and why his influence reached unprecedented heights, leading to the astonishing 5-0 victory over Argentina in Buenos Aires, the murder of referees, and the ruthless coercion of officials culminating in the killing of Andres Escobar - the Colombian defender who paid the ultimate price for an own goal in the 1994 World Cup. It is also an examination of a people's relationship with both the sport and the nefarious leaders that brought both pride and terror to their communities.<br/><br/>Set against the U.S War on Drugs, international threats, and government clampdowns, this is a gripping exploration of Colombian club football under Escobar's rise and fall.

<b>The remarkable story of the footballer who battled against the odds to achieve his dreams - only to see his country having to fight to survive, after the shocking invasion of Ukraine.</b><br/><br/>A fan favourite at Arsenal and previously at Manchester City, Oleksandr Zinchenko has been lighting up the Premier League with his fearless performances for many years. But his success has not come without its challenges. Having begun his career as a teenager at Shakhtar Donetsk, Zinchenko played amateur football when no club would sign him. But after he joined Manchester City in 2016 he would go on to experience exhilarating career highs, with four league titles in six years, before moving to Arsenal where he has played an integral part in their challenge for honours.<br/><br/>He has shown heroism of a very different kind through his extraordinary campaigning in support of his homeland during the ongoing war. After the invasion of Ukraine, he decided he could make the greatest difference by using his platform to spread awareness and raise money to support his country.<br/><br/>Written with candour and bravery, <i>Believe</i> is no ordinary tale of success on the pitch, but one of unwavering strength and integrity, tempered by sadness and anger. It provides unique insights into the methods of Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta and the machinations of elite football teams. It is the story of a selfless man who cares deeply for his homeland's welfare, and always tries to deliver his best on and off the field.

Christopher McDougall&apos;s new running partner, Sherman, is ill-tempered, obstinate, and often so uncooperative that Christopher leads him with a rope. Sherman is also a donkey. After rescuing Sherman from a neglectful owner and almost certain death, Christopher McDougall plunges into the world of Burro Racing -- running a marathon accompanied by a Donkey. His aim is to rehabilitate Sherman, to give him purpose, and to participate in the World Championship Pack Burro Race in Fairplay, Colorado, where Burro Racing was invented. But along the way, as McDougall learns how to care for his new companion and meets the men and women who have fallen in love with Burro Racing, he discovers how working with animals can teach profound lessons about what it means to be human.

The football World Cup is the biggest sporting competition on Earth - a chance every four years for the greatest players to win international glory, and a month-long media spectacle that's watched by an audience of billions. But the tournament has changed beyond recognition since the inaugural event in Montevideo, Uruguay, in July 1930. What was once a semi-professional meeting beset by haphazard play has evolved to become a game of multinational buyouts, dubious ethics and questionable aims - and the new era of football has much to tell us about the globalised world. Simon Kuper is among the vanishingly small number of writers who have attended every World Cup since 1990. World Cup Fever is his journey to find the heart of football, through the nine tournaments he's experienced first-hand - from watching matches in half-empty stands during Italia 90, a tournament that at times felt like a village fete, to witnessing the French triumph at home in 1998, South Africa's national dream in 2010 and the troubling legacy of Qatar 2022. Told on the pitch and in the stands, and in the pubs, front rooms and on the streets, this is the story of how football has changed the world.

'A tough, beautiful novel. - Guardian<br/><br/>About one womans fine, hard life at the racetrack, Kick the Latch with its ruthless concision and artful mysteries is lightning in a bottle.<br/><br/>Kathryn Scanlans Kick the Latch vividly captures the arc of one womans life at the racetrack the flat land and ramshackle backstretch; the bad feelings and friction; the winners circle and the racetrack bar; the fancy suits and fancy boots; and the particular language of grooms, jockeys, trainers, racing secretaries, stewards, pony people, hotwalkers, everybody with economy and integrity.<br/><br/>Based on transcribed interviews with Sonia, a horse trainer, the novel investigates form and authenticity in a feat of synthesis reminiscent of Charles Reznikoffs Testimony. As Scanlan puts it, I wanted to preserve amplify, exaggerate Sonias idiosyncratic speech, her bluntness, her flair as a storyteller. I arrived at what you could call a composite portrait of a self.<br/><br/>Whittled down with a fiercely singular artistry, Kick the Latch bangs out of the starting gate and carries the reader on a careening joyride around the inside track.<br/><br/>A revelation in its unadorned, unromantic, plain power. - Andrew McMillan<br/><br/>'A series of taut, electrifying vignettes . . . by turns exultant and brutal. - LA Review of Books