Author: Grant Wahl
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307408612
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
How do some of soccer’s smartest and most accomplished figures master the craft of the game? This in-depth analysis of modern soccer reveals how elite players and coaches strategize on and off the field to execute in high-pressure situations. “A worthy addition to any soccer fan’s shelf.”—The Wall Street Journal In Masters of Modern Soccer, America’s premier soccer journalist, Grant Wahl, reveals what players and managers are thinking before, during, and after games and delivers a true behind-the-scenes perspective on the inner workings of the sport’s brightest minds. Wahl follows world-class players from across the globe, examining how they do their jobs and gaining deep insight from the players on how goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, and forwards function individually and as a unit to excel and win. He also shadows a manager and director of soccer as they juggle the challenges of coaching, preparation, and the short- and long-term strategies of how to identify and acquire talent and deploy it on the field. These central figures share the little details that matter, position by position: • Attacking midfielder Christian Pulisic explains why he wears his soccer cleats a size too small to make his first touch even better. • Forward Javier “Chicharito” Hernández reveals the Mexican national team’s secret synchronized patterns that create space for him in front of the goal. • Defender Vincent Kompany tells you why his teammates’ pressure on the ball means he can defend his man more tightly in the penalty box. • Defensive midfielder Xabi Alonso describes his disdain for slide tackles and the tendency among even the best professional midfielders to play too closely to one another. • Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer tells the origin story of his sweeper-keeper role, which has allowed him to redefine the position for the modern game. • Head coach Roberto Martínez explains the differences between coaching clubs and national teams and why one of the first things he looks for in any game situation is numerical advantage. • Director of football Michael Zorc discusses what he looks for when it comes to identifying players he can buy low and sell high, Moneyball-style, while still competing to win trophies. The definitive analysis of the craft of soccer, Masters of Modern Soccer will change the way any fan, player, coach, or sideline enthusiast experiences the game.
Masters of Modern Soccer
Author: Grant Wahl
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307408612
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
How do some of soccer’s smartest and most accomplished figures master the craft of the game? This in-depth analysis of modern soccer reveals how elite players and coaches strategize on and off the field to execute in high-pressure situations. “A worthy addition to any soccer fan’s shelf.”—The Wall Street Journal In Masters of Modern Soccer, America’s premier soccer journalist, Grant Wahl, reveals what players and managers are thinking before, during, and after games and delivers a true behind-the-scenes perspective on the inner workings of the sport’s brightest minds. Wahl follows world-class players from across the globe, examining how they do their jobs and gaining deep insight from the players on how goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, and forwards function individually and as a unit to excel and win. He also shadows a manager and director of soccer as they juggle the challenges of coaching, preparation, and the short- and long-term strategies of how to identify and acquire talent and deploy it on the field. These central figures share the little details that matter, position by position: • Attacking midfielder Christian Pulisic explains why he wears his soccer cleats a size too small to make his first touch even better. • Forward Javier “Chicharito” Hernández reveals the Mexican national team’s secret synchronized patterns that create space for him in front of the goal. • Defender Vincent Kompany tells you why his teammates’ pressure on the ball means he can defend his man more tightly in the penalty box. • Defensive midfielder Xabi Alonso describes his disdain for slide tackles and the tendency among even the best professional midfielders to play too closely to one another. • Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer tells the origin story of his sweeper-keeper role, which has allowed him to redefine the position for the modern game. • Head coach Roberto Martínez explains the differences between coaching clubs and national teams and why one of the first things he looks for in any game situation is numerical advantage. • Director of football Michael Zorc discusses what he looks for when it comes to identifying players he can buy low and sell high, Moneyball-style, while still competing to win trophies. The definitive analysis of the craft of soccer, Masters of Modern Soccer will change the way any fan, player, coach, or sideline enthusiast experiences the game.
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307408612
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
How do some of soccer’s smartest and most accomplished figures master the craft of the game? This in-depth analysis of modern soccer reveals how elite players and coaches strategize on and off the field to execute in high-pressure situations. “A worthy addition to any soccer fan’s shelf.”—The Wall Street Journal In Masters of Modern Soccer, America’s premier soccer journalist, Grant Wahl, reveals what players and managers are thinking before, during, and after games and delivers a true behind-the-scenes perspective on the inner workings of the sport’s brightest minds. Wahl follows world-class players from across the globe, examining how they do their jobs and gaining deep insight from the players on how goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, and forwards function individually and as a unit to excel and win. He also shadows a manager and director of soccer as they juggle the challenges of coaching, preparation, and the short- and long-term strategies of how to identify and acquire talent and deploy it on the field. These central figures share the little details that matter, position by position: • Attacking midfielder Christian Pulisic explains why he wears his soccer cleats a size too small to make his first touch even better. • Forward Javier “Chicharito” Hernández reveals the Mexican national team’s secret synchronized patterns that create space for him in front of the goal. • Defender Vincent Kompany tells you why his teammates’ pressure on the ball means he can defend his man more tightly in the penalty box. • Defensive midfielder Xabi Alonso describes his disdain for slide tackles and the tendency among even the best professional midfielders to play too closely to one another. • Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer tells the origin story of his sweeper-keeper role, which has allowed him to redefine the position for the modern game. • Head coach Roberto Martínez explains the differences between coaching clubs and national teams and why one of the first things he looks for in any game situation is numerical advantage. • Director of football Michael Zorc discusses what he looks for when it comes to identifying players he can buy low and sell high, Moneyball-style, while still competing to win trophies. The definitive analysis of the craft of soccer, Masters of Modern Soccer will change the way any fan, player, coach, or sideline enthusiast experiences the game.
Soccer Men
Author: Simon Kuper
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 1568584598
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
Simon Kuper's New York Times bestseller Soccernomics pioneered a new way of looking at soccer through meticulous empirical analysis and incisive -- and witty -- commentary. Kuper now leaves the numbers and data behind to explore the heart and soul of the world's most popular sport in the new, extraordinarily revealing Soccer Men. Soccer Men goes behind the scenes with soccer's greatest players and coaches. Inquiring into the genius and hubris of the modern game, Kuper details the lives of giants such as Arsè Wenger, Jose Mourinho, Jorge Valdano, Lionel Messi, Kakáand Didier Drogba, describing their upbringings, the soccer cultures they grew up in, the way they play, and the baggage they bring to their relationships at work. From one of the great sportswriters of our time, Soccer Men is a penetrating and surprising anatomy of the figures that define modern soccer.
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 1568584598
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
Simon Kuper's New York Times bestseller Soccernomics pioneered a new way of looking at soccer through meticulous empirical analysis and incisive -- and witty -- commentary. Kuper now leaves the numbers and data behind to explore the heart and soul of the world's most popular sport in the new, extraordinarily revealing Soccer Men. Soccer Men goes behind the scenes with soccer's greatest players and coaches. Inquiring into the genius and hubris of the modern game, Kuper details the lives of giants such as Arsè Wenger, Jose Mourinho, Jorge Valdano, Lionel Messi, Kakáand Didier Drogba, describing their upbringings, the soccer cultures they grew up in, the way they play, and the baggage they bring to their relationships at work. From one of the great sportswriters of our time, Soccer Men is a penetrating and surprising anatomy of the figures that define modern soccer.
Soccer Thinking for Management Success
Author: Peter Loge
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
ISBN: 1785357557
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 174
Book Description
The modern world is networked and always working. Organizations no longer have the luxury of time. Expertise is no longer confined to a couple of smart guys in corner offices, reviewing information to which only they have access and issuing instructions through layers of middle-men to nine-to-fivers who carry out the dictates and feed paper back up the chain, awaiting the next set of instructions. Today’s successful organization is decentralized and never stops moving. In fact, organizational success is a lot like soccer. Every player is both a specialist and generalist. Responsibility on the field is distributed, and everyone on the team works for everyone else. Communication among players is constant. Soccer is 90 minutes of systems thinking in action. Soccer Thinking for Management Success is by a soccer fan and player who has spent a career building and running teams and organizations. He draws on insights from leaders, known and not-so-well-known who use soccer thinking to succeed. This is not just another book on how to be a great leader by a famous person. This is a management and leadership book by, and for, the rest of us.
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
ISBN: 1785357557
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 174
Book Description
The modern world is networked and always working. Organizations no longer have the luxury of time. Expertise is no longer confined to a couple of smart guys in corner offices, reviewing information to which only they have access and issuing instructions through layers of middle-men to nine-to-fivers who carry out the dictates and feed paper back up the chain, awaiting the next set of instructions. Today’s successful organization is decentralized and never stops moving. In fact, organizational success is a lot like soccer. Every player is both a specialist and generalist. Responsibility on the field is distributed, and everyone on the team works for everyone else. Communication among players is constant. Soccer is 90 minutes of systems thinking in action. Soccer Thinking for Management Success is by a soccer fan and player who has spent a career building and running teams and organizations. He draws on insights from leaders, known and not-so-well-known who use soccer thinking to succeed. This is not just another book on how to be a great leader by a famous person. This is a management and leadership book by, and for, the rest of us.
The Invention of the Beautiful Game
Author: Gregg Bocketti
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813065046
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 323
Book Description
“Beautifully researched and engagingly told, this book captures the bitter conflicts and surprising continuities that marked the emergence of a national style in Brazil as it tells the story of the men and women who, despite their many differences, together created ‘the beautiful game.’”—Roger Kittleson, author of The Country of Football: Soccer and the Making of Modern Brazil “Compellingly shows how each segment of Brazilian society—players, club owners, and spectators, especially the usually neglected female fans—was touched by the sport that it eventually came to proudly embrace as its own.”—Amy Chazkel, coeditor of The Rio de Janeiro Reader: History, Culture, Politics “Highlights the narrative power of soccer, showing how Brazilians—from elite sportsmen and nationalist intellectuals to common men and women—infused the sport with both personal and national importance.”—Joshua Nadel, author of Fútbol!: Why Soccer Matters in Latin America Although the popular history of Brazilian football narrates a story of progress toward democracy and inclusion, it does not match the actual historical record. Instead, football can be understood as an invention of early twentieth century middle-class and wealthy Brazilians who called themselves “sportsmen” and nationalists, and used the sport as part of their larger campaigns to shape and reshape the nation. In this cross-cutting cultural history, Gregg Bocketti traces the origins of football in Brazil from its elitist, Eurocentric identity as “foot-ball” at the end of the nineteenth century to its subsequent mythologization as the specifically Brazilian “futebol,” o jogo bonito (the beautiful game). Bocketti examines the popular depictions of the sport as having evolved from a white elite pastime to an integral part of Brazil’s national identity known for its passion and creativity, and concludes that these mythologized narratives have obscured many of the complexities and the continuities of the history of football and of Brazil. Mining a rich trove of sources, including contemporary sports journalism, archives of Brazilian soccer clubs, and British ministry records, and looking in detail at soccer’s effect on all parts of Brazilian society, Bocketti shows how important the sport is to an understanding of Brazilian nationalism and nation building in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813065046
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 323
Book Description
“Beautifully researched and engagingly told, this book captures the bitter conflicts and surprising continuities that marked the emergence of a national style in Brazil as it tells the story of the men and women who, despite their many differences, together created ‘the beautiful game.’”—Roger Kittleson, author of The Country of Football: Soccer and the Making of Modern Brazil “Compellingly shows how each segment of Brazilian society—players, club owners, and spectators, especially the usually neglected female fans—was touched by the sport that it eventually came to proudly embrace as its own.”—Amy Chazkel, coeditor of The Rio de Janeiro Reader: History, Culture, Politics “Highlights the narrative power of soccer, showing how Brazilians—from elite sportsmen and nationalist intellectuals to common men and women—infused the sport with both personal and national importance.”—Joshua Nadel, author of Fútbol!: Why Soccer Matters in Latin America Although the popular history of Brazilian football narrates a story of progress toward democracy and inclusion, it does not match the actual historical record. Instead, football can be understood as an invention of early twentieth century middle-class and wealthy Brazilians who called themselves “sportsmen” and nationalists, and used the sport as part of their larger campaigns to shape and reshape the nation. In this cross-cutting cultural history, Gregg Bocketti traces the origins of football in Brazil from its elitist, Eurocentric identity as “foot-ball” at the end of the nineteenth century to its subsequent mythologization as the specifically Brazilian “futebol,” o jogo bonito (the beautiful game). Bocketti examines the popular depictions of the sport as having evolved from a white elite pastime to an integral part of Brazil’s national identity known for its passion and creativity, and concludes that these mythologized narratives have obscured many of the complexities and the continuities of the history of football and of Brazil. Mining a rich trove of sources, including contemporary sports journalism, archives of Brazilian soccer clubs, and British ministry records, and looking in detail at soccer’s effect on all parts of Brazilian society, Bocketti shows how important the sport is to an understanding of Brazilian nationalism and nation building in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The Ball is Round
Author: David Goldblatt
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781594482960
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 1012
Book Description
The definitive book about soccer, from the author of The Games: A Global History of the Olympics. There may be no cultural practice more global than soccer. Rites of birth and marriage are infinitely diverse, but the rules of soccer are universal. No world religion can match its geographical scope. The single greatest simultaneous human collective experience is the World Cup final. In this extraordinary tour de force, David Goldblatt tells the full story of soccer's rise from chaotic folk ritual to the world's most popular sport-now poised to fully establish itself in the USA. Already celebrated internationally, The Ball Is Round illuminates soccer's role in the political and social histories of modern societies, but never loses sight of the beauty, joy, and excitement of the game itself.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781594482960
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 1012
Book Description
The definitive book about soccer, from the author of The Games: A Global History of the Olympics. There may be no cultural practice more global than soccer. Rites of birth and marriage are infinitely diverse, but the rules of soccer are universal. No world religion can match its geographical scope. The single greatest simultaneous human collective experience is the World Cup final. In this extraordinary tour de force, David Goldblatt tells the full story of soccer's rise from chaotic folk ritual to the world's most popular sport-now poised to fully establish itself in the USA. Already celebrated internationally, The Ball Is Round illuminates soccer's role in the political and social histories of modern societies, but never loses sight of the beauty, joy, and excitement of the game itself.
How Football Began
Author: Tony Collins
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351709674
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
This ambitious and fascinating history considers why, in the space of sixty years between 1850 and 1910, football grew from a marginal and unorganised activity to become the dominant winter entertainment for millions of people around the world. The book explores how the world’s football codes - soccer, rugby league, rugby union, American, Australian, Canadian and Gaelic - developed as part of the commercialised leisure industry in the nineteenth century. Football, however and wherever it was played, was a product of the second industrial revolution, the rise of the mass media, and the spirit of the age of the masses. Important reading for students of sports studies, history, sociology, development and management, this book is also a valuable resource for scholars and academics involved in the study of football in all its forms, as well as an engrossing read for anyone interested in the early history of football.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351709674
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
This ambitious and fascinating history considers why, in the space of sixty years between 1850 and 1910, football grew from a marginal and unorganised activity to become the dominant winter entertainment for millions of people around the world. The book explores how the world’s football codes - soccer, rugby league, rugby union, American, Australian, Canadian and Gaelic - developed as part of the commercialised leisure industry in the nineteenth century. Football, however and wherever it was played, was a product of the second industrial revolution, the rise of the mass media, and the spirit of the age of the masses. Important reading for students of sports studies, history, sociology, development and management, this book is also a valuable resource for scholars and academics involved in the study of football in all its forms, as well as an engrossing read for anyone interested in the early history of football.
Switching Fields
Author: George Dohrmann
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 1524798878
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 209
Book Description
A Pulitzer Prize–winning sports journalist unravels why the United States has failed to produce elite men’s soccer players for so long—and shows why a golden era just might be coming. “George Dohrmann is one of our most perceptive chroniclers of youth sports in the United States, and here he brings his keen eye to the history and present of U.S. men’s soccer development.”—Grant Wahl, CBS Sports analyst and New York Times bestselling author of Masters of Modern Soccer The contrast is striking. As the United States Women’s National soccer team has long dominated the sport—winners of four World Cups and four Olympic gold medals—the men’s team has floundered. They failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and three consecutive Olympics, and have long struggled when facing the world’s best teams. How could a country so dominant in other men’s team sports—and such a global powerhouse in women’s soccer—be so far behind the rest of the world in men’s soccer? In Switching Fields, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist George Dohrmann turns his investigative focus on the system that develops male soccer players in the United States, examining why the country has struggled for decades to produce first-class talent. But rather than just focus on the past, he looks forward, connecting with coaches and players who are changing the way talented prospects are unearthed and developed: an American living in Japan who devised a new way for kids under five to be introduced to the game; a coach in Los Angeles who traveled to Spain and Argentina and returned with coaching methods that he used to school a team of future pros; a startup in San Francisco that has increased access for Latino players; an Arizona real estate developer whose grand experiment changed the way pro teams in the United States nurture talent. Following these innovators’ inspiring journeys, Dohrmann gives ever-hopeful U.S. soccer fans a reason to believe that a movement is underway to smash the developmental status quo—one that has put the United States on the verge of greatness.
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 1524798878
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 209
Book Description
A Pulitzer Prize–winning sports journalist unravels why the United States has failed to produce elite men’s soccer players for so long—and shows why a golden era just might be coming. “George Dohrmann is one of our most perceptive chroniclers of youth sports in the United States, and here he brings his keen eye to the history and present of U.S. men’s soccer development.”—Grant Wahl, CBS Sports analyst and New York Times bestselling author of Masters of Modern Soccer The contrast is striking. As the United States Women’s National soccer team has long dominated the sport—winners of four World Cups and four Olympic gold medals—the men’s team has floundered. They failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and three consecutive Olympics, and have long struggled when facing the world’s best teams. How could a country so dominant in other men’s team sports—and such a global powerhouse in women’s soccer—be so far behind the rest of the world in men’s soccer? In Switching Fields, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist George Dohrmann turns his investigative focus on the system that develops male soccer players in the United States, examining why the country has struggled for decades to produce first-class talent. But rather than just focus on the past, he looks forward, connecting with coaches and players who are changing the way talented prospects are unearthed and developed: an American living in Japan who devised a new way for kids under five to be introduced to the game; a coach in Los Angeles who traveled to Spain and Argentina and returned with coaching methods that he used to school a team of future pros; a startup in San Francisco that has increased access for Latino players; an Arizona real estate developer whose grand experiment changed the way pro teams in the United States nurture talent. Following these innovators’ inspiring journeys, Dohrmann gives ever-hopeful U.S. soccer fans a reason to believe that a movement is underway to smash the developmental status quo—one that has put the United States on the verge of greatness.
The Language of the Game
Author: Laurent Dubois
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 046509449X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 284
Book Description
Essential reading for soccer fans as the 2022 World Cup approaches, this lively and lyrical book is "an ideal guide to the world's most popular sport" (Simon Kuper, coauthor of Soccernomics). Soccer is not only the world's most popular game; it's also one of the most widely shared forms of global culture. The Language of the Game is a passionate and engaging introduction to soccer's history, tactics, and human drama. Profiling soccer's full cast of characters—goalies and position players, referees and managers, commentators and fans—historian and soccer scholar Laurent Dubois describes how the game's low scores, relentless motion, and spectacular individual performances combine to turn each match into a unique and unpredictable story. He also shows how soccer's global reach makes it an unparalleled theater for nationalism, international conflict, and human interconnectedness, with close attention to both men's and women's soccer. Filled with perceptive insights and stories both legendary and little known, The Language of the Game is a rewarding read for anyone seeking to understand soccer better—newcomers and passionate followers alike.
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 046509449X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 284
Book Description
Essential reading for soccer fans as the 2022 World Cup approaches, this lively and lyrical book is "an ideal guide to the world's most popular sport" (Simon Kuper, coauthor of Soccernomics). Soccer is not only the world's most popular game; it's also one of the most widely shared forms of global culture. The Language of the Game is a passionate and engaging introduction to soccer's history, tactics, and human drama. Profiling soccer's full cast of characters—goalies and position players, referees and managers, commentators and fans—historian and soccer scholar Laurent Dubois describes how the game's low scores, relentless motion, and spectacular individual performances combine to turn each match into a unique and unpredictable story. He also shows how soccer's global reach makes it an unparalleled theater for nationalism, international conflict, and human interconnectedness, with close attention to both men's and women's soccer. Filled with perceptive insights and stories both legendary and little known, The Language of the Game is a rewarding read for anyone seeking to understand soccer better—newcomers and passionate followers alike.
God is Round
Author: Juan Villoro
Publisher: Restless Books
ISBN: 1632060779
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 234
Book Description
A brilliant, kaleidoscopic exploration of soccer—and the passion, hopes, rivalries, superstitions, and global solidarity it inspires—from award-winning author and Mexico’s leading sports journalist, Juan Villoro. On a planet where FIFA has more members than the United Nations and the World Cup is watched by more than three billion people, football is more than just a game. As revered author Juan Villoro argues in this passionate and compulsively readable tribute to the world’s favorite sport, football may be the most effective catalyst for panglobal unity at the time when we need it most. (Following global consensus, Villoro uses “football” rather than “soccer” in the book.) What was the greatest goal of all time? Why do the Hungarians have a more philosophical sense of defeat than the Mexicans? Do the dead play football? In essays ranging from incisive and irreverent portraits of Maradona, Messi, Ronaldo, Pelé, Zidane, and many more giants of the game to entertaining explorations of left-footedness and the number 10, Juan Villoro dissects the pleasure and pain of football fandom. God Is Round is a book for both fanatics and neophytes who long to feel the delirium of the faithful. Praise for God is Round “If you want to talk about soccer, go talk to Juan Villoro.” —Carlos Fuentes “In trying times like these, when the anguish and uncertainty can be almost too much to bear, Mexico turns to him, its philosopher-fanatic, to make sense of the seemingly nonsensical. With the nation’s hopes for the World Cup spiraling into doubt and chaos, Juan Villoro, one of Mexico’s most decorated and esteemed writers — who also happens to be a leading soccer analyst—comes charging down the metaphorical field to scold, explain and extract the lessons within.” —The New York Times “The literature of Juan Villoro…is opening up the path of the new Spanish novel of the millennium.” —Roberto Bolaño “[Villoro] has assumed the Octavio Paz mantle of Mexican public wise man of letters (though with none of Paz’s solemnity, for Villoro is as boyishly effusive, brimming with laughter and cleverness, as Paz was paternalistically dour—and, of course, Villoro, the author of the book God Is Round, may be the most fútbol-obsessed man alive)” —Francisco Goldman, The New Yorker Juan Villoro is Mexico’s most prolific, prize-winning author, playwright, journalist, and screenwriter. His books have been translated into multiple languages; he has received the Herralde Award in Spain for his novel El testigo, the Antonin Artaud award in France for Los culpables. His novel, Arrecife, was recently short-listed for the Rezzori Prize in Italy. Villoro lives in Mexico City and is a visiting lecturer at Yale and Princeton universities. Thomas Bunstead's translations from the Spanish include work by Eduardo Halfon and Yuri Herrera, Aixa de la Cruz's story “True Milk” in Best of European Fiction, and the forthcoming A Brief History of Portable Literature by Enrique Vila-Matas (a co-translation with Anne McLean). A guest editor of a Words Without Borders feature on Mexico (March 2015), Thomas has also published his own writing in the Times Literary Supplement, The Independent, the Paris Review blog, 3ammagazine, Days of Roses, readysteadybook, and >kill author.
Publisher: Restless Books
ISBN: 1632060779
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 234
Book Description
A brilliant, kaleidoscopic exploration of soccer—and the passion, hopes, rivalries, superstitions, and global solidarity it inspires—from award-winning author and Mexico’s leading sports journalist, Juan Villoro. On a planet where FIFA has more members than the United Nations and the World Cup is watched by more than three billion people, football is more than just a game. As revered author Juan Villoro argues in this passionate and compulsively readable tribute to the world’s favorite sport, football may be the most effective catalyst for panglobal unity at the time when we need it most. (Following global consensus, Villoro uses “football” rather than “soccer” in the book.) What was the greatest goal of all time? Why do the Hungarians have a more philosophical sense of defeat than the Mexicans? Do the dead play football? In essays ranging from incisive and irreverent portraits of Maradona, Messi, Ronaldo, Pelé, Zidane, and many more giants of the game to entertaining explorations of left-footedness and the number 10, Juan Villoro dissects the pleasure and pain of football fandom. God Is Round is a book for both fanatics and neophytes who long to feel the delirium of the faithful. Praise for God is Round “If you want to talk about soccer, go talk to Juan Villoro.” —Carlos Fuentes “In trying times like these, when the anguish and uncertainty can be almost too much to bear, Mexico turns to him, its philosopher-fanatic, to make sense of the seemingly nonsensical. With the nation’s hopes for the World Cup spiraling into doubt and chaos, Juan Villoro, one of Mexico’s most decorated and esteemed writers — who also happens to be a leading soccer analyst—comes charging down the metaphorical field to scold, explain and extract the lessons within.” —The New York Times “The literature of Juan Villoro…is opening up the path of the new Spanish novel of the millennium.” —Roberto Bolaño “[Villoro] has assumed the Octavio Paz mantle of Mexican public wise man of letters (though with none of Paz’s solemnity, for Villoro is as boyishly effusive, brimming with laughter and cleverness, as Paz was paternalistically dour—and, of course, Villoro, the author of the book God Is Round, may be the most fútbol-obsessed man alive)” —Francisco Goldman, The New Yorker Juan Villoro is Mexico’s most prolific, prize-winning author, playwright, journalist, and screenwriter. His books have been translated into multiple languages; he has received the Herralde Award in Spain for his novel El testigo, the Antonin Artaud award in France for Los culpables. His novel, Arrecife, was recently short-listed for the Rezzori Prize in Italy. Villoro lives in Mexico City and is a visiting lecturer at Yale and Princeton universities. Thomas Bunstead's translations from the Spanish include work by Eduardo Halfon and Yuri Herrera, Aixa de la Cruz's story “True Milk” in Best of European Fiction, and the forthcoming A Brief History of Portable Literature by Enrique Vila-Matas (a co-translation with Anne McLean). A guest editor of a Words Without Borders feature on Mexico (March 2015), Thomas has also published his own writing in the Times Literary Supplement, The Independent, the Paris Review blog, 3ammagazine, Days of Roses, readysteadybook, and >kill author.
Tree of Smoke
Author: Denis Johnson
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780374279127
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 638
Book Description
Once upon a time there was a war . . . and a young American who thought of himself as the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and who wished to be neither, who wanted instead to be the Wise American, or the Good American, but who eventually came to witness himself as the Real American and finally as simply the Fucking American. That’s me. This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong—and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel. This is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert into a war in which the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In its vision of human folly, and its gritty, sympathetic portraits of men and women desperate for an end to their loneliness, whether in sex or death or by the grace of God, this is a story like nothing in our literature. Tree of Smoke is Denis Johnson’s first full-length novel in nine years, and his most gripping, beautiful, and powerful work to date. Tree of Smoke is the 2007 National Book Award Winner for Fiction.
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780374279127
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 638
Book Description
Once upon a time there was a war . . . and a young American who thought of himself as the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and who wished to be neither, who wanted instead to be the Wise American, or the Good American, but who eventually came to witness himself as the Real American and finally as simply the Fucking American. That’s me. This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong—and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel. This is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert into a war in which the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In its vision of human folly, and its gritty, sympathetic portraits of men and women desperate for an end to their loneliness, whether in sex or death or by the grace of God, this is a story like nothing in our literature. Tree of Smoke is Denis Johnson’s first full-length novel in nine years, and his most gripping, beautiful, and powerful work to date. Tree of Smoke is the 2007 National Book Award Winner for Fiction.