The set-in-Surrey book keys on Jimmy, the team captain, recruited by a local drug dealer and seduced by money and fast-lane life. As relationships and studies start to slide, Jimmy must dribble and weave his way back in an effort to find true happiness.
SURREY – Michael Bains, who no longer lives in Surrey, was a star basketball player in the mid-2000s at Tamanawis Secondary, where Bains also saw the lure of gang life and drugs start to derail some Wildcats teammates and other fellow students.
“It’s inspired by people I knew and grew up with,” Bains explained. “All the things I write about are things I saw firsthand, but it’s not about my life. I was never involved in gangs and drugs but I had friends who were, and that’s the story of the main character, his struggle.”
Bains’ high school life and baseketball is the central story of Hooped, which Bains calls a coming-of-age tale of basketball, love and journey of self-discovery.
The set-in-Surrey book keys on Jimmy, the team captain, recruited by a local drug dealer and seduced by money and fast-lane life. As relationships and studies start to slide, Jimmy must dribble and weave his way back in an effort to find true happiness.
The novel features a lot of Surrey high schools, parks and other locations throughout the book as the plot revolves around the main character trying to lead his basketball team to the Provincial Championship.
Bains said it depicts life in Surrey for a large number of Surrey youth, with basketball and gang/drug activity being two main themes throughout. It is a reflection of not only my life as a basketball player growing up, but also paints a picture of the gang activity that has become so prevalent in the community.
Hooped is currently available on Amazon and the Indigo online platforms, as well as direct from Bains’ website – www.michaelbains.ca. It is available in multiple physical bookstores including Indigo – Robson, and India Book Store on 128th Street
