Goals, obstacles, allies and adversaries: behind each race lies a challenge, behind every athlete lies  a hero.

On the occasion of the 29th International Book Fair of Turin, we have selected the best 6 stories, about sports and life, which have left a mark over the recent years.

1) Open – André Agassi

Why read it – Because he had to admit to himself that the talent that Nature had generously bestowed upon him was for the one thing he hated most in this world: tennis. Because he had to learn to live with this, which  was to him the greatest of challenges, as the best of opportunities. And because he succeeded: As a sportsman, as a man, as a father.

2) Stories of sports, stories of women. In a gallery of portraits, the secret of women's sport

Why read it – Because it shows a different, but not less intense, interpretation of challenges, sport, sacrifice, determination. A difference in gender that enriches and completes, in sports as in life. 17 stories of women who win, who lose, who feel revived; from Debora Compagnoni to Tania Cagnotto, from Federica Pellegrini to Valentina Vezzali, through the exemplary determination of the Paralympic athletes.

3) Coaching Guardiola

Why read it – Because Pep Guardiola has been able to build a team, his Barcelona, that will always remain among the legends of football, and he did it with courageous choices, investing in his own unique way of conceiving the competition. The themes of intelligence shared and the enhancement of the individual in the enhancement of the team allowed him, along with a new idea of leadership in football, to become the youngest coach who won a Champions League.

4) Senna: The destiny of a champion

Why read it – Because it shows that greatness often belongs to those  who defy classification. So was Senna: the charismatic leader, but also the most experienced technician; the reserved man, but brazenly competitive in the race; the man of faith, but an enemy of limits. This made of his destiny, the destiny of a champion.

5) My story – Jonah Lomu

Why read it – Because it has shown that nothing can steal a dream to those who dare to dream: neither a hard life nor a sad illness. And because it proves that time is always on your side, if you know how to use it. Jonah Lomu, the All Blacks giant, icon of rugby and of the spirit that animates this sport.

6) Photographs from wide spaces – Walter Bonatti

Why read it –  Bonatti is one of the greatest mountaineers of all time, a man who continually reset the benchmark of human possibility by ascending routes that others dared not even contemplate. He climbed with an audacity and panache that epitomized the purest spirit of alpinism, and inspired an entire generation of climbers.