Off Balance

At fourteen years old, Dominique Moceanu was the youngest member of the 1996 US Women's Olympic Gymnastics team (known as "The Magnificent Seven"), the first ever American women's team to take gold at the Olympics. Her pixyish appearance and ferocious competitive drive quickly earned her the status of media darling. But behind the fame, the flawless floor routines, and the million-dollar smile, her life was a series of challenges and hardships.

Off Balance vividly delineates each of the dominating characters who contribute to Moceanu's rise to the top: her stubborn father, her long-suffering mother, and her acclaimed yet domineering coaches, Marta and Bela Karolyi. Moceanu also shares haunting stories of competition, her years of hiding injuries and pain out of fear of retribution from her coaches, and how she climbed back to the top with dignity after hitting rock bottom following a public court battle with her father.

But medals, murder plots, drugs, and daring escapes aside (all of which figure into Moceanu's incredible journey), the most unique aspect of her life is the family secret that she discovers, opening a new and unexpected chapter in her adult life. A mysterious letter from a stranger reveals that she has a second sister-born with a physical disability and given away at birth-who has nonetheless followed in Moceanu's footsteps in an astonishing way.

A multilayered memoir that transcends the world of sports, Off Balance will touch anyone who has ever dared to dream of a better life.