First published 2024
Won Lee walks into a gym where nobody knows his name, but every eye follows him anyway. He has just become the first Asian American player in the NBA, and his seven-game winning streak has the media calling it "The Wonder." Won hates the nickname. He battles for recognition from his coach, his teammates, and especially from Powerball, his hero who now plays alongside him as team captain. Sportswriter Robert Sung covers Won's rise while wrestling with his own failed basketball dreams and his role as an Asian American journalist. Producer Carrie Kang watches it all unfold as she begins a relationship with Won and fights to bring Korean drama to Hollywood studios that resist change. Won and Carrie navigate professional pressures and personal struggles on stages where few people who look like them have ever stood. They fight to be seen and heard while the world reduces them to stereotypes and soundbites.
Genres: fiction, contemporary, sports
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: NBA
Period: 21st-century
256 pages · Paperback · Little, Brown Paperbacks