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