World Literature: Dimitry Elias Léger’s “Death of the Soccer God” (Haiti) with Anderson Tepper

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. Enter the enthralling world of Dimitry Elias Leger’s Death of the Soccer God, in which a global soccer star’s epic ride to the 1950 World Cup places him in shooting distance of his dreams and his own death.

“Léger’s novel can join the canon of tongue-in-cheek novels about the sports world, a small group of novels to be sure, but an illustrious one… just as much a portrait of the athlete as it is the world that created him.” —Malavika Praseed, Chicago Review of Books

When Gilbert’s father makes him swear off soccer to focus on his studies, 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. But, scrimmaging in Central Park, he’s spotted by the US 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 is a passionate and improbable love story, and a roaring Pan-American tale about the price of fame. It is a heady dance between life and death, an answer to the eternal question: can love save us?

About the Author:

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.

About the Moderator:

Anderson Tepper is a guest curator of PEN America’s World Voices Festival and a longstanding member of the Brooklyn Book Festival’s Literary Council and international committee. Formerly of Vanity Fair, his writing on books and authors has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, and World Literature Today, among other publications. Anderson also serves on City of Asylum’s Advisory Board.

About Your Visit: 

The in-house restaurant, Cucina Alfabeto, is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, but a cash wine bar will be available.