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A Novel
by Dimitry Elias Léger
A global soccer star's epic ride to the 1950 World Cup places him in shooting distance of his dreams and his own death.
Gilbert Chevalier's life is a mid-century miracle: wealthy, handsome, beloved by every woman he meets, and blessed with incomparable talents on the soccer field. And it's all about to end...
Gil's father makes him swear off the sport, to focus on his studies. When he leaves the bourgeois comforts of Port-au-Prince high society and moves to the dizzying, jazz-soaked streets of Harlem to attend Columbia University, the promise is broken. Scrimmaging in Central Park, he's spotted by the U.S. National Team's coach and is recruited to play for the Americans in the 1950 World Cup in Brazil. And then he flies too close to the sun.
Gil's unraveling is the wild stuff of myth: a plea to God for salvation; secret messages smuggled across continents; lovers shuffled, scorned, and reclaimed; and journeys past the veil between our world and the afterlife. From the Caribbean to the States, to South America and back, Gil's adventures are lush and lurid, and delivered with a breathless, breakneck pace synonymous with the world's most popular sport.
Death of the Soccer God by Dimitry Elias Legér is a passionate and improbable love story, and a roaring Pan-American tale about the price of fame. Inspired by the unbelievable yet true story of an intrepid young Haitian immigrant and energized with the high-voltage fervor of a packed stadium, Death of the Soccer God is a heady dance between life and death, an answer to the eternal question: can love save us?
"Like its predecessor [God Loves Haiti], the novel moves with lyrical, imaginative force, especially in its vivid evocations of soccer play, while also showcasing the author's penchant for orchestrating funny and poignant romantic interludes. A historical novel that merrily dances and jukes its way across the pitch of time." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Léger sustains the momentum with energetic set pieces, which often involve Gilbert's Zelig-like encounters with celebrities, as when he rescues Miles Davis from an angry spurned lover. It's a blast." ―Publishers Weekly
"Like a long persona poem from the pitch, Death of the Soccer God exemplifies the kind of dark, hilarious, and discomforting forms of play that exercise our desire to pay attention. Gilbert is exhilarating when wrong, and wronged himself, and it takes a deft hand to delineate this man's desire from his untoward destination, and yet, Dimitry Elias Léger pulls it off, while making everything in-between a serious thrill." ―Joseph Earl Thomas, author of Sink and God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer
"Dimitry Elias Leger's novel is a feat of joy and artistry and soccer fields. From Harlem jazz clubs and Brazilian futebol stadiums, to the intimate and violent spaces of Haitian history, Death of the Soccer God takes the beautiful game on a journey unlike any other it's taken before." ―Héctor Tobar, author Our Migrant Souls
This information about Death of the Soccer God was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Dimitry Elias Léger is the author of God Loves Haiti, a finalist for the PEN Open Book Award. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Time, Fortune, Granta, The Miami Herald, Literary Hub, The Millions, and The Source. Beyond his writing, Léger studied geopolitics at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and served as an advisor to the United Nations for a decade. He lives between Brooklyn, Geneva, and Martinique.
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