Dimitry Elias Léger Discusses Death of the Soccer God with Francesca Momplaisir
Clarendon Library is pleased to welcome Dimitry Elias Léger to discuss Death of the Soccer God with author and multilingual scholar Francesca Momplaisir.
A global soccer star’s epic ride to the 1950 World Cup places him in shooting distance of his dreams and his own death. 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.
Free food and refreshments from BunNan BK will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
After the conversation, there will be opportunity for Q&A with the audience. Please RSVP in advance as space is limited.
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.
Francesca Momplaisir is the author of The Garden of Broken Things and My Mother’s House. Born in Haiti, she is a multi-lingual scholar and novelist writing in English and Kreyol. Dr. Momplaisir studied at Columbia University, the University of Oxford, and New York University where she earned a doctorate in African and African diaspora literature. She is therecipient of a Fulbright fellowship to travel to Ghana to research the cultural retention of the transatlantic slave trade. Her debut novel was compared to Toni Morrison “at the height of her career” (Harper’s Bazaar) and made several best book lists including Elle and Vulture.
