UNDER THE LIGHTS AND IN THE DARK

In 2004 football author, journalist and award-winning documentary maker Gwendolyn Oxenham played futebol feminino for Santos FC, Brazil's most celebrated club. The team hitchhiked to practice, shared their field with a horse and wore hand-me-downs from the men's team. If this was Brazil, the mecca of futebol, what did the women's game look like in other countries?

Under the Lights and in the Dark takes us inside the world of women's football, following players across the globe, from Portland Thorns star Allie Long, who trains in an underground men's league in New York City; to English national Fara Williams, who kept her homelessness a secret from teammates on the English youth national team. Oxenham takes us to the depths of Siberia, where players battle more than just snowy pitches in pursuing their dream of playing pro, and to a refugee camp in Denmark, where Nadia Nadim, now a Danish international star, practiced after her family fled from the Taliban.

Whether you're a newcomer to the sport or a die-hard fan, this is an inspiring book about stars' beginnings and adventures, struggles and hardship, and, above all, the time-honored romance of the game.

Please note the book touches on stories in the following countries:

France
USA
Brazil
Sweden
Iceland
Cameroon
Japan
Germany
Spain
Italy

GWENDOLYN OXENHAM received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Notre Dame, where she was awarded the Nicholas Sparks post-graduate fellowship. She is the author of Finding the Game: Three Years, Twenty-five Countries and the Search for Pickup Soccer, and the co-director of the film Pelada. She has written for The Atlantic, Slate, and Sports Illustrated. A Duke University soccer alum, she played professionally for Santos FC in Brazil in 2005. She teaches English and plays in pickup games in Southern California.