Booklist “starred” Review
“This is the incredibly powerful story of two Chicago men, author Bradburd and former basketball player and coach Shawn Harrington, and how their lives have been intertwined with inner-city basketball and gun violence….This unflinchingly honest work insinuates its way into the reader’s psyche the way only great books can. Unforgettable.”
Read the entire review here.
Shawn Harrington, a basketball coach at Marshall High School, was shot on January 30, 2014 while driving his daughter on their morning commute. Over the next three years, as shocking number of his Marshall players were murdered, the dream of the game providing a better life seemed all but gone.
Shawn had once appeared in the iconic basketball documentary “Hoop Dreams.” His decision to come home to Chicago was triggered by the birth of his daughter and a desire to make a difference on the troubled West Side. Author Rus Bradburd, a college basketball coach for fourteen seasons, recruited Shawn to play at New Mexico State in the 1990s. Shawn left that school after a single season and Bradburd eventually quit coaching to become a writer. Twenty years later, in the aftermath of Shawn’s mistaken identity shooting, Bradburd reached out to his former player to rebuild their complex relationship and to examine the impact of gun violence on Shawn’s family, school, and Chicago’s basketball community.
“All the Dreams We’ve Dreamed” is a true story of courage, endurance, and friendship that plays against the backdrop of one of America’s most violent neighborhood.
For more information on Shawn Harrington and “All the Dreams We’ve Dreamed”, watch Meet the inspiring coach using basketball to guide Chicago youth below from The Today Show.
Buy from Bookshop
Buy from Chicago Review Press
Buy on Amazon
Praise for All The Dreams We’ve Dreamed
Minneapolis Star-Tribune Review
Two decades after the film “Hoop Dreams,” the stories unfolding at Marshall High School are more important than ever before. Anyone interested in courage, stamina, education, race, health care, guns, or American society will find “All the Dreams We’ve Dreamed” a riveting read. Shawn Harrington is an American hero, and his story needs to be heard.
—Arne Duncan, former U.S. Secretary of Education, founder of C.R.E.D.
Life, near-death and hope for ‘Hoop Dreams’ basketball player and coach Shawn Harrington
—Rick Kogan
About the Author
Chicago native Rus Bradburd is the author of three previous books:
- the novel-in-stories, Make It, Take It
- the controversial Forty Minutes of Hell: The Extraordinary Life of Nolan Richardson
- his memoir about Ireland, Paddy on the Hardwood.
Rus and his wife, the award-winning poet Connie Voisine, live with their daughter in Chicago and New Mexico.