By the author
of the bestselling Moneyball:
in football, as in life, the
value we place on people changes
with the rules of the games they
play.
The young man at the center of
this extraordinary and moving
story will one day be among the
most highly paid athletes in the
National Football League. When
we first meet him, he is one of
thirteen children by a mother
addicted to crack; he does not
know his real name, his father,
his birthday, or any of the
things a child might learn in
school — such as, say, how to
read or write. Nor has he ever
touched a football.
What changes? He takes up
football, and school, after a
rich, Evangelical, Republican
family plucks him from the mean
streets. Their love is the first
great force that alters the
world's perception of the boy,
whom they adopt. The second
force is the evolution of
professional football itself
into a game where the
quarterback must be protected at
any cost. Our protagonist turns
out to be the priceless
combination of size, speed, and
agility necessary to guard the
quarterback's greatest
vulnerability: his blind side.
And as if you didn't already
know, it's now a hit motion
picture. Check out the trailer!
Reviews:
"Lewis tells an amazing true story
in an appropriately mordant style...
Oher's story is not pretty, but
Lewis tells it well — and against
all odds, it may be heading for a
happy ending."
-- George F. Will New York Times Book Review
"In The Blind Side, Lewis takes on
football, and specifically the mania
for the game as encountered in
Southern culture. It is a riveting
account, though its pleasures — like
those of watching grown men nearly
kill one another over a pigskin —
are ultimately distressing."
-- Los Angeles Times
"Lewis's discussion of evolving
strategy is woven into the true
focus of his book, a profile of
African American football prodigy
Michael Oher....His strange, sad,
and yet inspiring tale is grippingly
told here."
-- Library Journal
"If you love football, you'll find
the X's and O's discussion
enthralling. If you love a good
tale, you'll keep turning pages to
find out more about the mystery of
Oher's past and what has become of
him."
-- San Jose Mercury News
"Its dialogue is sharp and its
anecdotes well chosen. Its aim for
both the heartstrings and the funny
bone is right on the mark."
-- Janet Maslin The
New York Times
About the Author:
Twenty-four year-old Princeton
graduate
Michael Lewis
had recently received his master's
degree from the London School of
Economics when Salomon Brothers
hired him as a bond salesman in
1985. He moved to New York for
training and witnessed firsthand the
cutthroat, scruple-free culture that
was Wall Street in the 1980s.
Several months later, armed only
with what he'd learned in training,
Lewis returned to London and spent
the next three years dispensing
investment advice to Salomon's
well-heeled clientele. He earned
hundreds of thousands of dollars and
survived a 1987 hostile takeover
attempt at the firm. Nonetheless, he
grew disillusioned with his job and
left Salomon to write an account of
his experiences in the industry.
Published in 1989, Liar's Poker
remains one of the best written and
most perceptive chronicles of
investment banking and the appalling
excesses of an era.
Since then, Lewis has found great
success as a financial journalist
and bestselling author. His
nonfiction ranges over a variety of
topics, including U.S./Japanese
business relations (Pacific Rift),
the 1996 presidential campaign (Trail
Fever), Silicon Valley (The
New New Thing), and the Internet
boom (Next: The Future Just
Happened). He investigated the
economics of professional sports in
Moneyball (2003) and The
Blind Side (2006); and, in 2008,
he edited Panic, an anthology
of essays about the major financial
crises of 1990s and early "oughts."
