Awards

• Short-listed for Oxford Wiedenfeld Translation Prize 2017 (UK)
• Shortlisted for Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize 2017.

Overview

A funny and mind-bending novel about the clash of empires and ideas in the sixteenth century, told over the course of one dazzling tennis match 'Glorious' New York Times 'Endlessly inventive', Guardian, Best Books of 2016 'Wildly funny' Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies As Caravaggio, the libertine of Italy's art world, and the loutish Spanish poet Quevedo aim to settle scores over the course of one brutal tennis match, the old European order edges closer to eruption. Across the ocean, in early sixteenth-century Mexico, the Aztec Empire is under the fatal grip of Hernan Cortes and his Mayan lover. While they scheme and conquer, fight and fuck, their domestic comedy will change the course of history, throwing the world - and Rome's tennis match - into a mind-bending reverie of assassinations, executions, papal dramas, carnal liaisons and artistic revolution. Translated by Natasha Wimmer, the prize-winning translator of Roberto Bolano's The Savage Detectives and 2666.

Full Product Details

9780099598053

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Reviews

Brilliant... Enrigue has crafted a tennis allegory for the modern age: a heady, raucous meditation on chaos, power, language and the ways in which history is created and preserved... Enrigue blends historical elements with fantasy to conjure a light, knowing and very funny history in which the present is always lurking beneath the surface... Enrigue's prose is endlessly inventive, full of aphorisms, wry anecdotes and swaggering declarations. Financial Times Marks the arrival of a major player on the capital-L courts of literature Vice An exhilarating, funny, and surprisingly sexy read. Enrigue turns historical figures into real, flesh-and-blood people and really gets you thinking about art and history: what qualifies as either - and why Buzzfeed Ingenius and clever... Engagingly original... There are traces of Pynchon's zany allure... Sudden Death is rich and lively with warmth which counters the bleakness of history. -- Eileen Battersby Irish Times Glorious... [Enrigue's] approach has both great entertainment value and intellectual appeal, especially as a corrective to a Eurocentric view of history... A splendid introduction to Mr. Enrigue's varied body of work New York Times

Brilliant... Enrigue has crafted a tennis allegory for the modern age: a heady, raucous meditation on chaos, power, language and the ways in which history is created and preserved... Enrigue blends historical elements with fantasy to conjure a light, knowing and very funny history in which the present is always lurking beneath the surface... Enrigue's prose is endlessly inventive, full of aphorisms, wry anecdotes and swaggering declarations. * Financial Times * Exhilarating, funny, and surprisingly sexy... Enrigue turns historical figures into real, flesh-and-blood people and really gets you thinking about art and history: what qualifies as either - and why * Buzzfeed * Dazzlingly clever and thrillingly original * Mail on Sunday * Intellectually formidable... Enrigue is a cerebral and sanguine Spanish-Language postmodernist... It takes literary bravery to be this candid as a writer * New Statesman * Engaging, audacious, and flat-out fun... Sudden Death marks the arrival of a major player on the capital-L courts of literature * Vice * A complex historical pageant of astonishing richness * Guardian, Best Books of 2016 *

Brilliant... Enrigue has crafted a tennis allegory for the modern age: a heady, raucous meditation on chaos, power, language and the ways in which history is created and preserved... Enrigue blends historical elements with fantasy to conjure a light, knowing and very funny history in which the present is always lurking beneath the surface... Enrigue's prose is endlessly inventive, full of aphorisms, wry anecdotes and swaggering declarations. Financial Times Marks the arrival of a major player on the capital-L courts of literature Vice Endlessly inventive Guardian Best Books of 2016 An exhilarating, funny, and surprisingly sexy read. Enrigue turns historical figures into real, flesh-and-blood people and really gets you thinking about art and history: what qualifies as either - and why Buzzfeed Ingenius and clever... Engagingly original... There are traces of Pynchon's zany allure... Sudden Death is rich and lively with warmth which counters the bleakness of history. -- Eileen Battersby Irish Times

A complex historical pageant of astonishing richness Guardian, Best Books of 2016 Engaging, audacious, and flat-out fun... Sudden Death marks the arrival of a major player on the capital-L courts of literature Vice Intellectually formidable... Enrigue is a cerebral and sanguine Spanish-Language postmodernist... It takes literary bravery to be this candid as a writer New Statesman Dazzlingly clever and thrillingly original Mail on Sunday Exhilarating, funny, and surprisingly sexy... Enrigue turns historical figures into real, flesh-and-blood people and really gets you thinking about art and history: what qualifies as either - and why Buzzfeed Brilliant... Enrigue has crafted a tennis allegory for the modern age: a heady, raucous meditation on chaos, power, language and the ways in which history is created and preserved... Enrigue blends historical elements with fantasy to conjure a light, knowing and very funny history in which the present is always lurking beneath the surface... Enrigue's prose is endlessly inventive, full of aphorisms, wry anecdotes and swaggering declarations. Financial Times

Author Information

lvaro Enrigue was born in Mexico and lives in New York City. He is a literature professor at Hofstra University. Sudden Death - his first novel to be translated into English - was awarded the prestigious Herralde Prize in Spain, the Elena Poniatowska International Novel Award in Mexico, and the Barcelona Prize for Fiction.

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