Solo: A Memoir of Hope

by Hope Solo Narrated by Christina Delaine

Overview

"My family doesn't do happy endings. We do sad endings or frustrating endings or no endings at all. We are hardwired to expect the next interruption or disappearance or broken promise."

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 outsized talent has led her to the pinnacle of her sport-the Olympics and the World Cup-and made her into an international celebrity who is just as likely to appear on ABC's Dancing with the Stars as she is on the covers of Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine, and Vogue. But her journey-which began in Richland, Washington, where she was raised by her strong-willed mother on the scorched earth of defunct nuclear testing sites-is similarly haunted by the fallout of 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. When those dreams are threatened by her standing within the national team, as when she was famously benched in the semifinals of the 2007 World Cup after four shutouts and spoke her piece publicly, we see a woman of uncompromising independence and hard-won perseverance navigate the petty backlash against her. For the first time, she tells her version of that controversial episode, and offers with it a full understanding of her hard-scrabble life.

Moving, sometimes shocking, Solo is a portrait of an athlete finding redemption. This is the Hope Solo whom few have ever glimpsed.

Editorial Reviews

APRIL 2013 - AudioFile

There was a time when the author, the goalie for the U.S. National Women’s Soccer Team, almost lost it all after complaining about being benched in the 2007 World Cup. She’s come a long way since then, reclaiming her place on the team, winning titles, and appearing on “Dancing with the Stars.” Narrator Christina Delaine has a friendly, down-home voice that is well suited to the all-American tone of the book. Delaine is able to get to the heart of Solo’s story and varies her reading to accentuate the personal nature of the book. Delaine, however, doesn’t keep the story moving. She focuses too much on the emotions, which slows her down and results in her losing vocal energy. This sometimes diminishes the book’s impact. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

Library Journal

Featured twice on the cover of Sports Illustrated and a TV regular, Solo may have made her name as the independent-minded goalkeeper for the U.S. women's national soccer team, but she's much more. Here's her story, focusing on her relationship with her father, who taught her to love soccer but disappeared from her life for a time when he was convicted of embezzlement. Given Solo's headliner reputation, not to mention comparisons to Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle, the 30,000-copy first printing seems a bit cautious.

APRIL 2013 - AudioFile

There was a time when the author, the goalie for the U.S. National Women’s Soccer Team, almost lost it all after complaining about being benched in the 2007 World Cup. She’s come a long way since then, reclaiming her place on the team, winning titles, and appearing on “Dancing with the Stars.” Narrator Christina Delaine has a friendly, down-home voice that is well suited to the all-American tone of the book. Delaine is able to get to the heart of Solo’s story and varies her reading to accentuate the personal nature of the book. Delaine, however, doesn’t keep the story moving. She focuses too much on the emotions, which slows her down and results in her losing vocal energy. This sometimes diminishes the book’s impact. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

The unflinching account of U.S. women's soccer team member Solo's life on and off the field. Born in Richland, Wash., a plutonium-producing town "created in the dark shadows of the American dream," Solo came from a family that "[didn't] do happy endings." Her father was a philandering con man who married her mother while still serving a prison sentence for embezzlement. When Solo was 7, he kidnapped her and her brother Marcus from their mother; after he was arrested, she did not see him again for many years. But the damage had already been done. Her home life was fraught with tension that manifested as fights between Solo and her brother and alcoholism in her mother. She found refuge in sports and excelled as a soccer player. By the time she was a high school junior, she had caught the eye of college coaches across the country. Solo chose the University of Washington, where she lived a double life as a respected college athlete and a national soccer team member while gradually rebuilding a relationship with her now-homeless father. Dreaming of World Cup glory, Solo then played for professional teams in the U.S., Sweden and France while continuing to train with the American national team. Never one to hold back, she speaks with great honesty about the difficulty of living in the shadow of the 1999 World Cup championship team. She also reflects thoughtfully on her infamous benching at the 2007 World Cup competition and how the misunderstanding it caused nearly ruined her reputation and professional standing. Through heartache, setbacks and career-threatening injuries, Solo demonstrates not only a fierce determination to overcome, but also the grace of a true champion. A readable, inspiring memoir about staying true to dreams and principles in a world that too often forces personal compromise.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170238675
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/12/2013
Edition description:	Unabridged

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