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    Ali: A Life
    Ali: A Life
    Ali: A Life
    Audiobook22 hours

    Ali: A Life

    Written by Jonathan Eig

    Narrated by Kevin R. Free

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The definitive biography of an American icon, from a New York Times best-selling author with unique access to Ali's inner circle He was the wittiest, the prettiest, the strongest, the bravest, and, of course, the greatest (as he told us over and over again). Muhammad Ali was one of the twentieth century's greatest radicals and most compelling figures. At his funeral in 2016, eulogists said Ali had transcended race and united the country, but they got it wrong. Race was the theme of Ali's life. He insisted that America come to grips with a black man who wasn't afraid to speak out or break the rules. He didn't overcome racism. He called it out. "I am America," he once declared. "I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me-black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own. Get used to me." Ali went from being one of the most despised men in the country to one of the most beloved. But until now, he has never been the subject of a complete, unauthorized biography. Jonathan Eig, hailed by Ken Burns as one of America's master storytellers, breaks new ground and radically reshapes our understanding of the slippery figure who was Muhammad Ali. Eig had access to all the key people in Ali's life, including his three surviving wives and his managers. He also had access to thousands of pages of new FBI and Justice Department files, as well dozens of hours of newly discovered audiotaped interviews from the 1960s. Jonathan Eig's Ali breaks bold new ground, revealing Ali in the complexity he deserves, shedding important new light on his politics and his neurological condition. Ali is a story about race, about a brutal sport, and about a fascinating man who shook up the world.

    Editor's Note

    Legendary…

    This intimate look at the legendary boxing champ’s life won the 2018 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. Judges called it “a beautifully-written, transcendent biography that renders vivid in every stage of a remarkable life: Ali the brash teenager, Ali the proud Muslim, Ali the conscientious objector — and then: Ali the warrior, the man of peace, and finally the icon.”

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateOct 3, 2017
    ISBN9781501968860
    Author

    Jonathan Eig

    Jonathan Eig, a former senior special reporter at the Wall Street Journal, is the author of several highly acclaimed books, two of which appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. His first book, Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, won the Casey Award for best baseball book of 2005; his second book, Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season, was named one of the best books of the year by the Chicago Tribune, Sports Illustrated, and The Washington Post. In his third book, Get Capone Eig discovered thousands of pages of new material on Capone, affirming his trustworthy reporting reputation in what The New York Times called a "multifaceted portrait," a "gore-spattered thriller," and "as much a dark history of urban America between the world wars as it is another mobster's life story." And in The Birth of the Pill, Eig again tackles an enormous volume of unexamined personal correspondence in an original and richly-textured narrative.

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    Reviews for Ali

    4.5/5

    46 ratings5 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A beautiful story of a beautiful soul. He truly was The Greatest.
    • 4/5
      It’s a good read about the life of the champ. Never realized how generous he was.
    • 5/5
      Excellent book and well read
      Always had me captivated and interested
    • 5/5
      This book does an awesome job of painting Ali in all his glory and all his flaws. A great read.
    • 4/5
      Wow. The book was hard to finish because I was in tears. Ali was an American hero. He wasn't without faults. He fell in with the wrong crowd (multiple times, it seems). He never learned to control his sexual appetite. But he transcended his youth, he stood up for what he believed, he dared to dream of greatness, he was kind.I would have given the book 5 stars except that I was not interested in the blow-by-blow boxing commentary on each fight. I'm sure there are many, many readers who will give it the extra star.