When he was called up to the New York Mets, R.A. Dickey was a journeyman knuckleballer who had bounced in and out of the minor leagues for fourteen years and seriously considered a backup career as an English teacher.

Today, the 37-year-old Dickey has emerged not only as the most improbable success story in the major leagues, but also as one of America’s most fascinating professional athletes. From meager beginnings and a difficult family life in Nashville, Dickey forged a boy’s rage and hurt into dreams of athletic greatness—dreams that led him to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and to a life-changing contract as a No. 1 draft choice of the Texas Rangers. The possibilities seemed endless until team doctors discovered Dickey’s elbow lacked a ligament critical for a strong pitching arm. His initial contract revoked, Dickey spent the next decade and a half fighting setbacks, never fully finding his niche, while shame, sadness, and loneliness drove him to the brink of suicide.

Wherever I Wind Up, Dickey’s acclaimed New York Times bestselling memoir, recounts his harrowing journey back to hope. Whether he’s revealing the trauma of childhood abuse or the flailing pitching career that compelled him to turn to his famous knuckleball, Dickey shows how self-awareness and honesty gave him ownership of his flaws and fears, a shift that catapulted him to a place of unprecedented grace.

During the 2012 baseball season, R.A. Dickey—No. 43 of the New York Mets—emerged as one of the premier starting pitchers in baseball, delivering back-to-back one-hitters, vying for the best ERA, and garnering his first-ever position on the National League All-Star team. He is an endearing sports figure in the nation’s biggest city—a transformed journeyman with a Tennessee twang, a missing ligament, and a love of literature. But much more than a chronicle of improbable baseball success, Dickey’s story is one of grace and mercy, an account of the power of faith and perseverance, about hitting rock bottom and refusing to stay there.