The Hopeful

Named a 5 Under 35 pick by the National Book Foundation

“Tracy O’Neill is a brilliant and bold new literary voice, and The Hopeful is destined to be one of the most exciting debut novels of the year.”—Julia Fierro, author of Cutting Teeth: A Novel

The Hopeful is a fine debut, smartly exploring the costs of obsession and trauma, the wages of daring to chase your boldest dreams. Tracy O’Neill’s gift for precise and surprising detail reveals her page after page to be a smart and compelling storyteller, whose gripping first novel is sure to thrill readers.”—Matt Bell, author of In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods

“In her hypnotic debut, Tracy O’Neill has created an indelible character in Alivopro Doyle, a young woman trapped in an anguished tangle of identity and fierce ambition. Though Doyle fights to keep us at arm’s length with crackling comebacks, we can’t help but notice, and want to protect, her tender brokenness as she struggles to break free from a body that has failed her.”—Karolina Waclawiak, author of How to Get Into the Twin Palms

A figure skating prodigy, sixteen-year old Alivopro Doyle is one of a few “hopefuls” racing against nature’s clock to try and jump and spin their way into the Olympics. But when a disastrous fall fractures two vertebrae, leaving Ali addicted to painkillers and ultimately institutionalized, it’s not just her dreams of glory that get torn asunder, but the very fabric that holds her fragile family together. A story about obsession, individuality, and growing up, set against the dramatic backdrop of the weird, glittering world of figure skating.