My Losing Season: A Memoir

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A deeply affecting coming-of-age memoir about family, love, loss, basketball--and life itself--by the beloved author of The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini

During one unforgettable season as a Citadel cadet, Pat Conroy becomes part of a basketball team that is ultimately destined to fail. And yet for a military kid who grew up on the move, the Bulldogs provide a sanctuary from the cold, abrasive father who dominates his life--and a crucible for becoming his own man. With all the drama and incandescence of his bestselling fiction, Conroy re-creates his pivotal senior year as captain of the Citadel Bulldogs. He chronicles the highs and lows of that fateful 1966-67 season, his tough disciplinarian coach, the joys of winning, and the hard-won lessons of losing. Most of all, he recounts how a group of boys came together as a team, playing a sport that would become a metaphor for a man whose spirit could never be defeated. Praise for My Losing Season

"A superb accomplishment, maybe the finest book Pat Conroy has written."--The Washington Post Book World "A wonderfully rich memoir that you don't have to be a sports fan to love."--Houston Chronicle "A memoir with all the Conroy trademarks . . . Here's ample proof that losers always tell the best stories."--Newsweek "In My Losing Season, Conroy opens his arms wide to embrace his difficult past and almost everyone in it."--New York Daily News "Haunting, bittersweet and as compelling as his bestselling fiction."--Boston Herald