COMING HOME (ADAPTED FOR YOUNG ADULTS)

Basketball star Griner’s life changes overnight, taking her from center court to the confines of a Russian prison, in this young readers’ adaptation of her 2024 memoir.

In Russia, Griner is “the female LeBron.” It’s 2022 and she’s playing basketball in Ekaterinburg. In the U.S., WNBA players are paid “about 250 times less” than their male counterparts; they’re able to earn significantly more in Russia. Tired of being away from her wife, Relle, Griner decides this will be her last season. She doesn’t know that one careless packing mistake will change everything. At the Moscow airport, agents detain Griner after discovering two cannabis vape pens—prescribed by her doctor for her sports injuries—in her bag. Her detention lasts 293 days and involves imprisonment in inhumane conditions, a sham trial where she’s used as a political pawn, and a harrowing transfer to a penal colony. Griner is finally released in a widely publicized prisoner exchange for a notorious Russian arms dealer. Griner’s story chronicles the horrors of the Russian prison system in a straightforward, expository tone that’s both measured and compulsively readable. Griner contrasts how her identity as a gay Black woman influenced her treatment on the basketball court and in prison in Russia with how she’s treated in the U.S. She ends with a call to action for the release of other detained Americans around the globe.

A chronicle of rebounding against unthinkable odds; Griner’s voice and faith ring clear in this story of survival.