It took me a long time to discover this book – it never came up on search engines for football novels. Given that the game is played with such artistry in places like Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil and given their rich literary heritage, I thought it curious that South America hadn’t produced a great football novel. It turns out it had.
![Papeles en el viento pelicula Papeles en el viento pelicula](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125387463/865299548.jpg)
Eduardo Sacheri (Castelar, 1967) is an Argentine writer and professor of History, graduated in. Papeles en el viento (2011); Ser feliz era esto (2014); La noche de la Usina (2016). Create a book Download as PDF Printable version.
The problem is probably the same as why the literary world in this country looks down its nose at the concept of a football novel: why would search engines pick up on such obscure novels, when no one in Islington is vaguely interested in them? This is a great novel, by any measure. It is well written – the three main characters jump to life. It treats the subject of male friendship and loyalty really well.
The two parallel story threads are nicely done. The football backdrop is weighted perfectly – not overdone, but enough to show a passion for the beautiful game and explain its importance without detracting from the story. It is easily one of my favourite football novels. The translation is not always the best – especially to a British English speaker – I would have enjoyed it more had I not had to keep translating it properly to myself as I went: soccer player = footballer, light tower = floodlight, alternate = substitute, knee-highs(F.F.S.)= socks, cleats =studs, tied and scoreless(!) = nil-nil draw, ‘lateral defender’ and ‘wall pass’ = f— only knows! The thing that stops this being totally perfect is the pace of historical story thread doesn’t quite keep up and doesn’t quite exploit all the ideas that come through in that sequence to its fullest. You’ve got to read this though.
Reviews of 45 other football novels at: https://stevek1889.blogspot.co.uk/201.