Synopses & Reviews
Eduardo Galeano's
Soccer in Sun and Shadow has established itself over the last decade as one of the most celebrated books on the world's greatest and most popular game. Readers all over the world have been drawn to the hundreds of magical stories that Galeano conjures and to his confession, Years have gone by and I've finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good soccer. I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: 'A pretty move, for the love of God.'" And when good soccer happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don't give a damn which team or country performs it."
In this new edition, which encompasses Galeano's reflections on the 2010 World Cup, tragedy spins a continuous thread through these pages remember Andres Escobar, the Colombian defender, whose own goal lost his country a game in the 1994 World Cup and was subsequently gunned down in Medellin? but where there is shadow there is also the bright sunlight of joy and beauty, of the Italian striker whose shorts in the run up to a penalty kick in the 1938 World Cup fell down around his knees he pulled them back up, and with the goalkeeper and stadium in pleats of laughter, scored the goal that saw Italy to the final. Galeano concludes that soccer is a pleasure that hurts, and the music of a victory that gets the dead dancing is akin to the clamorous silence of an empty stadium, where one defeated fan, unable to move, sits in the middle of the immense stands, alone.”
Review
A poetic history [of soccer] that sets the book apart from others
Galeano's Catholic upbringing, socialist politics, and the injustice hes seen as a journalist seeps into his commentary, and gives his narrative a refreshing perspective that captures soccer's spiritual roots, corruption by greed, and role as a global equalizer that puts royals and dictators at the mercy of minorities and slum kids.” Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
One of the greatest, magical and most lyrical accounts of the beautiful game FINALLY BACK IN PRINT AND FULLY UPDATED!
Synopsis
One of the greatest, magical, and most lyrical accounts of the beautiful game In this witty and rebellious history of world soccer, award-winning writer Eduardo Galeano searches for the styles of play, players, and goals that express the unique personality of certain times and places. In Soccer in Sun and Shadow, Galeano takes us to ancient China, where engravings from the Ming period show a ball that could have been designed by Adidas to Victorian England, where gentlemen codified the rules that we still play by today and to Latin America, where the "crazy English" spread the game only to find it creolized by the locals.
All the greats-Pel , Di St fano, Cruyff, Eus bio, Pusk s, Gullit, Baggio, Beckenbauer- have joyous cameos in this book. yet soccer, Galeano cautions, "is a pleasure that hurts." Thus there is also heartbreak and madness. Galeano tells of the suicide of Uruguayan player Abd n Porte, who shot himself in the center circle of the Nacional's stadium; of the Argentine manager who wouldn't let his team eat chicken because it would bring bad luck; and of scandal-riven Diego Maradona whose real crime, Galeano suggests, was always "the sin of being the best."
Soccer is a game that bureaucrats try to dull and the powerful try to manipulate, but it retains its magic because it remains a bewitching game-"a feast for the eyes ... and a joy for the body that plays it"-exquisitely rendered in the magical stories of Soccer in Sun and Shadow.
Synopsis
In this witty and rebellious history of world soccer, award-winning writer Eduardo Galeano searches for the styles of play, players, and goals that express the unique personality of certain times and places. In
Soccer in Sun and Shadow, Galeano takes us to ancient China, where engravings from the Ming period show a ball that could have been designed by Adidas to Victorian England, where gentlemen codified the rules that we still play by today and to Latin America, where the crazy English” spread the game only to find it creolized by the locals.
All the greats Pelé, Di Stéfano, Cruyff, Eusébio, Puskás, Gullit, Baggio, Beckenbauer have joyous cameos in this book. yet soccer, Galeano cautions, is a pleasure that hurts.” Thus there is also heartbreak and madness. Galeano tells of the suicide of Uruguayan player Abdón Porte, who shot himself in the center circle of the Nacionals stadium; of the Argentine manager who wouldn't let his team eat chicken because it would bring bad luck; and of scandal-riven Diego Maradona whose real crime, Galeano suggests, was always the sin of being the best.”
Soccer is a game that bureaucrats try to dull and the powerful try to manipulate, but it retains its magic because it remains a bewitching game a feast for the eyes... and a joy for the body that plays it” exquisitely rendered in the magical stories of Soccer in Sun and Shadow.
About the Author
Eduardo Galeano is one of Latin America's most distinguished writers. He is the author of the three-volume Memory of Fire; Open Veins of Latin America; Soccer in Sun and Shadow; The Book of Embraces; Walking Words; Upside Down; and Voices in Time. Born in Montevideo in 1940, he lived in exile in Argentina and Spain for years before returning to Uruguay. His work has been translated into twenty-eight languages. He is recipient of many international prizes, including the first Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom, the Casa de las Américas Prize, and the First Distinguished Citizen of the region by the countries of Mercosur.