First published in 1957, this novel has been a bestseller for decades as well as an intellectual landmark. It is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world--and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators? Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies but against those who needed him most--and his hardest battle against the woman he love? Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged...

Thirteen-year-old Julian Pryce was star center on an undefeated basketball team before moving to a new town, where he quickly gets on the wrong side of the starting center, whose father happens to be their coach.