Dimitry Elias Léger Discusses Death of the Soccer God with Edwidge Danticat
BPL Presents welcomes Dimitry Elias Léger to discuss the story of a global soccer star’s epic ride to the 1950 World Cup that places him in shooting distance of his dreams and his own death. Léger will be in conversation with Edwidge Danticat.
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?
PARTICIPANTS
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. Photo credit Nathaly Psyché
Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti and moved to the United States when she was twelve. She is the editor of Haiti Noir and Haiti Noir 2: The Classics, and author of Breath, Eyes, Memory (an Oprah’s Book Club selection), Krik? Krak!, and The Dew Breaker, among other books for adults. Her books for children include Eight Days: A Story of Haiti, Mama’s Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation, The Last Mapou, and My Mommy Medicine. Her young adult novels Untwine, Anacaona: Golden Flower, and Behind the Mountains offer profound insights into the immigrant experience and the beauty and complexity of Haitian culture. Her brand-new children’s picture book is Watch Out for Falling Iguanas (Akashic Books). A MacArthur Fellow, Danticat currently teaches at Columbia University.
BPL Presents programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
