Overview

Returning home from a work trip, too jet-lagged to fall asleep, Chris Jones opened his wife’s laptop intending to get some writing done. Instead, he found a series of text messages that would burn his world to the ground. In the span of twenty minutes, he lost his wife and his best friend. Overwhelmed by sorrow and often terrifying rage, Jones contemplated suicide. He soon ended up in an emergency room, begging a doctor for help. That was the start of his journey to understand himself, to come to terms with his mistakes, to let go of anger and find forgiveness, and to give himself over to something outside of himself: an underdog English football team from an underdog northern town called Burnley. How does one rebuild a life? Can something as simple as football give someone a reason to live, offering solace and ultimately meaning? In this searing, beautiful memoir, Jones learns who we are when we care deeply. His journey through heartbreak and healing becomes a moving portrait of modern masculinity - flawed, feeling, and profoundly human.

Full Product Details

9781835986103

Table of Contents

Reviews

Legs Hearts Minds might just be the greatest fan memoir ever written—blazingly honest and sneakily soulful, it finally captures in words the redemptive power of sports. -- Franklin Foer, author of How Soccer Explains the World This is the truest book about sports fandom that has been or ever will be written. But that's almost an incidental byproduct, so much narrative exhaust, of a story that is so much bigger. So much more universal. This is a book about being a human being on planet Earth. -- Wright Thompson, author of The Cost of These Dreams Chris Jones has suffered dearly, and the pages you are about to read bleed it. Legs Hearts Minds is the blessed convergence of brilliant writing and blistering truthfulness. The tears come. First out of sadness, then out of joy. -- Jeff Pearlman, author of Showtime and Football For A Buck.

Legs Hearts Minds might just be the greatest fan memoir ever written—blazingly honest and sneakily soulful, it finally captures in words the redemptive power of sports. -- Franklin Foer, author of How Soccer Explains the World This is the truest book about sports fandom that has been or ever will be written. But that's almost an incidental byproduct, so much narrative exhaust, of a story that is so much bigger. So much more universal. This is a book about being a human being on planet Earth. -- Wright Thompson, author of The Cost of These Dreams Chris Jones has suffered dearly, and the pages you are about to read bleed it. Legs Hearts Minds is the blessed convergence of brilliant writing and blistering truthfulness. The tears come. First out of sadness, then out of joy. -- Jeff Pearlman, author of Showtime and Football For A Buck. Chris Jones’ continued devotion to Burnley FC speaks to something cosmic. Keeping one eye firmly on a club that live near the bottom of the Premier League table, he charts the shifting successes and failures of his beloved Burnley in parallel to those he's experiencing in his own life; navigating divorce, anger, grief, and hopelessness, but also finding new loves and forgiveness. Legs Hearts Minds begins as Jones’ marriage ends, but his relationships with his aging parents, his sons, and how those intertwine with his Burnley support, are where Jones anchors his story. He writes with a raw honesty that will have readers at turns inspired and squirming, but always rapt. * Booklist * A raw debut memoir. In conversational prose, Jones chronicles his divorce, his experiences in therapy, and how he pulled his life together by becoming a die-hard follower of Burnley FC, his late grandfather’s favorite soccer team. Some of Jones’s conclusions feel familiar, but his willingness to bare his soul lends them extra weight. Readers who’ve struggled through losses of their own will find comfort in these pages. * Publishers Weekly * Love conquers all. Or maybe it’s soccer. Charming, with plenty of rough edges; a book every fan might well take to heart. * Kirkus *

Author Information

Chris Jones is a journalist and screenwriter who began his career covering baseball and boxing for the National Post. He later joined Esquire magazine, where he won two National Magazine Awards for his feature writing. His work has also appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, ESPN’s The Magazine (RIP), and WIRED. He has written three books.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available