Novelist John Grisham is well known for his best-selling legal novels, including “The Client” and “The Pelican Brief.” But in his latest book, “Sooley,” the attorney-turned-storyteller takes on South Sudan and the NCCU Eagles.
“I grew up with athletics in Mississippi and am a fan of college basketball,” said Grisham, who watches with his wife and daughter, both graduates of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “It so much as of part of our lives, from December through March.”
The fast-paced novel published in April 2021 captures the journey of South Sudanese athlete Samuel Sooleyman as he travels to the United States for a basketball tournament and winds up with a scholarship offer from NCCU.
“As the story develops, NCCU plays the ‘other’ school in Durham; I thought that it was fun to mix that in, too,” said Grisham, of a NCCU-Duke matchup in the plot.
Grisholm discusses the book’s NCCU setting, gives advice for budding writers, and recalls his background conversation with Eagles Coach LeVelle Moton in an exclusive interview. View the full video interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxAEuWnPkGo.
