Solo: A Memoir of Hope - Paperback

by Hope Solo (Author)

The Glass Castle meets A League of Their Own in Solo, a candid and moving memoir about family, loss, and reconciliation from Hope Solo, the supremely talented, headline-making goalkeeper for the U.S. women's national soccer team.

During the 2011 Women's World Cup, Solo became an idol, role model, and sex symbol to a new generation of young American sports enthusiasts, inspiring the kind of intense devotion not seen since the days of Mia Hamm.

An Olympic gold medalist and arguably America's sexiest athlete, Hope has been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated (twice), in ESPN: The Magazine, and as a contestant on the hit ABC television show Dancing with the Stars, and her poignant, compelling, and profoundly inspiring personal history will score big with her legion of fans.

For the first time, Hope Solo shares the story behind the headlines--a life far more turbulent and resilient than anyone knew.

• A Difficult Childhood: From a chaotic home life in Richland, Washington, to the pressures of the world stage, Solo's story is one of raw resilience.
• A Homeless Father: The complex and moving story of her relationship with her father, a charismatic con man who was sometimes homeless but never absent from her heart.
• Behind the Headlines: Solo speaks her mind on the controversies that defined her career, including the infamous 2007 World Cup benching that made her a household name.
• An Inspiring True Story: Follow her journey from a goal-scoring forward to becoming the best goalkeeper in the world and an Olympic gold medalist.

Back Jacket

Hope Solo is the face of the modern female athlete. She is fearless, outspoken, and the best in the world at what she does: protecting the goal of the U.S. women's soccer team. Her outsizetalent has led her to the pinnacle of her sport--the Olympics and the World Cup--and made her into an international celebrity. But her journey--which began in Richland, Washington, where she was raised by her strong-willed mother, is haunted by her family history. Her father, a philanderer and con man, was convicted of embezzlement when Solo was an infant. She lost touch with him as he drifted out of prison and into homelessness. By the time they reunited, years later, in the parking lot of a grocery store, she was an All-American goalkeeper at the University of Washington and already a budding prospect for the U.S. national team. He was living in the woods.

Despite harboring serious doubts even about the provenance of her father's last name (and her own), Solo embraces him as fiercely as she pursues her dreams of being a world-class soccer player. Moving, sometimes shocking, Solo is a portrait of an athlete finding redemption by staying true, above all, to herself.