Far Afield H/C

For some people, writing for Sports Illustrated would be considered a dream job. For some families, living in the South of France would be considered a dream life. In 2004, S.L. Price got to do both. After parlaying a job offer into a one-year assignment covering sports in Europe, Price moves his wife and three kids to a small hamlet in Provence, and then, on the eve of the Olympics' epic return to Athens, proceeds to span the continent trying to untangle the soul of world sports. He goes to Pakistan to understand the planet's most intense and bloody rivalry, spends time with Lance Armstrong as he fends off rumours of performance-enhancing drugs, charts the American surge in English soccer and basketball fever in Belgrade. Through Grand Slam tennis events, soccer matches and the bacchanal that is Europe's premiere ski race, Price traces all the cross-currents of passion and patriotism, the mutually suspicious and admiring attitudes between U.S. and Europe -- and then he manages to do more. For Far Afield is more than a sports travelogue.