Who knew that a book about basketball could be this great? My partner is sport obsessed and challenged me to read one of his sports-related books and this was the one he picked for me.

Journalist Darcy Frey spends a year at Lincoln High School in Coney Island where he follows three basketball players going from their Junior year into their Senior year, with the pressures of SAT scores, being courted by college teams and surviving in a tough neighbourhood.

The three players have very different personalities and through the book I really felt I had come to know them and hoped they would succceed. But this is also about the ridiculous college basketball system, the ruthless coaches and recruiters and how for black kids from neighbourhoods like this, basketball is the only way out. The amount of pressure put upon them at such a young age is shocking and the knowledge that only a small percentage will succeed is heartbreaking.

The book also features a fourth player, three years younger than the main characters, Stephon Marbury who goes onto become an NBA star, but for the rest just getting a college education is a dream in itself. ( )