"I retain clear memories of what my life was like before. In many ways, I suppose it was better. My children respected me. My wife and I shared numerous interests. I had friends. I enjoyed music. I read books. That I would grow suddenly obsessed with 'football' (the term used throughout the world to describe the sport that is called 'soccer' in America) seemed no more likely than my becoming an astronaut."

For celebrated author Joe McGinniss, this surprise obsession acts as the catalyst for a nine-month adventure that takes him to the varied climes of Italy as he follows the fate of a minor league soccer team, its players and management, their families, and the loyal fans in the remote village of Castel Di Sangro.

In the previous year this upstart team, consisting of all-but-unknown players, managed to accomplish a miracle by vaulting into the next level of the semiprofessional ranks via an astonishing season of play that surprised the entire soccer world. To sustain the miracle they need another successful season to remain in "Serie B," the next-to-top level of ranking in the framework of Italian league play that rewards success by ascension of the ranks and takes its toll by dropping to a lower level those teams who are unable to retain their prosperity. McGinniss puts his life on hold to find out if a second miracle is possible.

The village of Castel Di Sangro sits in the middle of the Abruzzo region of Italy, a land that author Tim Jepson says "could provide settings for a dozen fairy tales, with its wolves and bears and sturdy country folk." McGinniss comes to the region green --- with no friends and no knowledge of the Italian language --- but thanks to his publisher's generous donation, he holds an open passport for access to the team.

This behind-the-scenes view allows McGinniss everything he needs to weave a near-operatic story of the hopes and dreams of a ragtag group of athletes and their fans. In a country where a state of crisis is considered the norm, McGinniss finds that "truth, or even a truth --- just as with the true flavor of an onion --- was not typically encountered until at least a few layers had been removed." Quickly McGinniss discovers that the mysterious cigar-smoking team owner may have Mafia connections and the coach is a mountain of a man known ominously as "Bulldozer."

As the season progresses, McGinniss gets to know the players and their families as well as the loyal fans of the local team. Soccer is a passion for the inhabitants of the little villages, and each home match is attended by nearly all the residents. McGinniss renders these villages and cities in wonderful prose as he chronicles his travels with the team of Castel Di Sangro. In the Mediterranean village of Genoa, McGinniss notes that "it was those who still imagined in their veins the salt water of their seagoing forebears, and the dockworkers who tasted daily the salt of their own honest sweat, who supported the Genoa team --- the oldest in all of calcio, having been founded in 1893 by the British sailors who imported the game to Italy."

Before long, the winds of both fortune and Mother Nature begin to blow through the dream of another miracle. As spring approaches, McGinniss's tally reveals "from the original squad of twenty who had been here when I'd arrived in September, three had been sold to teams in C1, two were dead, one was in prison, and one was in critical condition." Yet for all this dismay, the chance for a hopeful heart was never far away:

"The gray of a raw dusk settles once again upon this frigid mountain outpost as the day's relentless rain prepares for its nightly transformation into treacherous sleet, and the beleaguered and impoverished inhabitants --- their winter's supply of firewood long gone --- again face the unyielding choice between burning yet another piece of furniture for warmth or killing still one more of their dwindling herd of sheep, in order to provide themselves with an additional blood-soaked layer of wool to lie beneath as they pray with frosty breath and ever-diminishing faith that the morrow's dawn might for the first time since one freakish Sunday in February bring with it the warmth of the sun... But are they complaining? Hell no! Because yesterday we beat Reggina, 1-0."

Through the engaging and passionate prose of McGinniss it's easy to see how sport can become obsession and how a country can embody the poetic spirit of a writer like Dante, while at the same time exude the darker force of Machiavellian political and social machinations. What eventually transpires reads like something out of a Verdi opera, yet for McGinniss it all comes down to a man, a ball, and the triumph of the spirit:

"Spectators can cheer, writers can write, bands can play as a result, but for the wizard the nature of the wizardry lies beyond the reach of words."