The Cost of These Dreams

The New York Times bestseller

'Full of rich characters, bad actors, heroes, drama, suffering, courage, conflict, and vivid detail' John Grisham

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From one of America's most beloved sportswriters, a collection of true stories about the dream of greatness and its cost in the world of sports.

There is only one Wright Thompson. His work includes the most read articles in the history of ESPN and has been anthologised in The Best American Sports Writing books ten times. But to say his pieces are about sports, while true as far as it goes, is like saying Larry McMurty's Lonesome Dove is a book about a cattle drive. Wright Thompson figures people out. Whether it be Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods or Lionel Messi or Pat Riley, he strips away the self-serving myths and fantasies to fully reveal his characters, and what drives them, in a way that few others can.

Ludicrously entertaining and often powerfully moving, The Cost of These Dreams is an ode to the reporter's art and a celebration of true greatness and the high price that it exacts.


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'Proves that the best sports writing is never about sport, but the human condition. Thompson writes vividly about things I didn't see but wish I had done' Duncan Hamilton, Guardian Best Books of the Year

'Wright Thompson performs that nifty bit of sportswriting hoodoo, virtually out of vogue today: he subordinates self to story. Stylishly, intelligently, incisively, deftly, he keeps his priorities straight. It's why I read him' Richard Ford