Ali: A Life
Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2017
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Ali: A Life
Narrated by:
Kevin R. Free
Buy Now for $35.40
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Narrated by:
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Kevin R. Free
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By:
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Jonathan Eig
About this listen
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR PRIZE 2017.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR.
WINNER OF THE PEN/ESPN AWARD FOR LITERARY SPORTS WRITING.
THE TIMES SPORTS BOOK AWARDS BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR.
The most comprehensive and definitive biography of Muhammad Ali that has ever been published, based on more than 500 interviews with those who knew him best, with many dramatic new discoveries about his life and career.
When the frail, trembling figure of Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta in 1996, a TV audience of up to 3 billion people was once again gripped by the story of the world's most famous sporting icon. The man who had once been reviled for his refusal to fight for his country and for his fast-talking denunciation of his opponents was now almost universally adored, the true cost of his astonishing boxing career clear to see.
In Jonathan Eig's ground-breaking biography, backed up with much detailed new research specially commissioned for this book, we get a stunning portrait of one of the most significant personalities of the second half of the twentieth century. We are not only taken inside the ring for some of the most famous bouts in boxing history, we also learn about his personal life, his finances, his faith and the moments when the first signs of his physical decline began to show. Ali was a symbol of freedom and courage, a hero to many, but this is also a very personal story of a warrior who vanquished every opponent but was finally brought down by his own stubborn refusal to quit.
An epic tale of a fighter who became the world's most famous pacifist, Ali: A Life does full justice to an extraordinary man.
‘Ali: A Life is the business – 640 pages of patient scholarship and intelligent reassessment written in crackly prose’ Giles Smith, The Times
‘[A] richly researched, sympathetic yet unsparing portrait ... Ali: A Life is an epic of a biography’ Joyce Carol Oates, New York Times
Critic Reviews
'Jonathan Eig's Ali: A Life is the business - 640 pages of patient scholarship and intelligent reassessment written in crackly prose and dancing gleefully and illuminatingly through the well-documented highlights while never shying away from the less glorious shadows.' (Giles Smith)
'A fine piece of journalism of the best American kind...wrought with sound judgment and rigorous prose. Ali's life is dissected with the detachment of a pathologist, and the picture isn't always a pretty one... In 50 or 100 years, people might wonder what all the fuss was about. Muhammad Ali: was there really such a character? They should read this book and learn that yes, there was, for all his flaws.' (Nick Pitt)
'This richly researched, sympathetic yet unsparing portrait of a controversial figure...could not have come at a more appropriate time... As Muhammad Ali's life was an epic of a life, so Ali: A Life is an epic of a biography... Even the familiar may be glanced from a new perspective in Eig's fluent prose.' (Joyce Carol Oates)
'Finally, after so many works focusing on this fight or that, the whole man, his whole life, is presented here' (Ken Burns)
'Goes deeper and uncovers more than any Ali biography has before’
'Jonathan Eig’s Ali: A Life is the first comprehensive biography worthy of this titanic figure... [Eig] vigorously narrates the story of the man who transformed the landscape of race and sports... Eig also paints Ali’s bouts with vivid detail and captivating sweep... Ali stirs together the sweet and the spicy, the gifts and the failings, the charm and the rage, the grace and the greed, the pride and the ego. Together, they made Ali the transcendent athlete of his age.' (Aram Goudsouzian)
'Does a remarkable job of synthesising the warring elements of Ali's life. Above all, it delivers a portrait of a hero that does not ignore his all too human flaws. This biography...ends in darkness & melancholy. Fortunately, the earlier chapters dazzle us.' (Clive Davis)
'Ali's extraordinary story, in all its complexity, is told in Jonathan Eig's excellent Ali: A Life' (Martin Chilton)
'There have been countless tomes about the iconic fighter, of course, but Eig's is the definitive work to date.'
'Stunning new biography...Ali is a big, fat, entertaining and illuminating read...What makes Eig’s book stand out is its broad scope, its detailed reportage and its lively, cinematic writing.' (Laurie Hertzel)
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