About this item
Jack O'Brien is a high school basketball coach extreme in both his demands and his devotion. With monastic discipline, he has built a powerhouse program that wins state championships year after year while helping propel players to college. He does this as a white suburban guy working exclusively with black city boys who make the daily trek across Boston to attend Charlestown High School, where the last battles of the city's school desegregation wars were fought a generation ago.The Assist is a gripping, surprising story about fathers, sons, and surrogates, all confronting the narrow margins of urban life. The book follows the players on their hunt for a state title. But it also stays with them, to see how young men who seldom get second chances survive without their coach hovering over them - and how he survives without them.
About the Author
Neil Swidey is the author of "Trapped Under the Sea," a No. 1 Boston Globe Bestseller that was named one of the best books of 2014 by Amazon and Booklist. He is also the author of "The Assist," named one of the best books of 2008 by The Washington Post, and a co-author of the New York Times bestselling "Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy." A staff writer for The Boston Globe Magazine, Swidey also teaches journalism at Tufts University and has been a contributing analyst for NBC News. His work has been featured in "The Best American Science Writing," "The Best American Crime Writing," and "The Best American Political Writing." He is a three-time winner of the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society for Professional Journalists and has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award. He lives outside Boston with his wife and three daughters. As an outgrowth of his first book, he founded the Alray Scholars Program, a mentoring and scholarship nonprofit that helps give inner-city students a second chance at college.
