A Simple Story

'Everything in him seemed to shout <i>this is what I am made of: there is nothing that I cannot do</i>.'

The Malambo is no ordinary dance. A murderous feat of endurance, it inspires fear and awe in the young working-class men who dance it. Whoever is crowned Champion at the annual competition in the remote Argentinian town of Laborde is treated as a demigod for the rest of his life - yet once he wins, he must never perform again.

Twenty-eight-year-old Rodolfo, who grew up poor and hungry in a flat with a leaking tin roof, has dreamed of winning at Laborde ever since he was a boy. Journalist Leila Guerriero follows him as he prepares for the championship, shredding his muscles, his feet and his nerves in the punishing, relentless struggle to achieve perfection - until, at 5.30am on 12 January, the winner is announced...

Combining electrifying storytelling and razor-sharp observation, this is a riveting true story of hardship, passion and dedication; of what it means to sacrifice everything to win, while knowing that ultimately it will destroy you.

<strong>Leila Guerriero</strong> (b. 1967) is one of Argentina's foremost journalists and writers, and has published articles in numerous newspapers and periodicals in South America, Spain and Italy, including <em>El Pais</em>, <em>Vanity Fair</em> and <em>Rolling Stone</em>. In 2010, she won the CEMEX+FNPI Award, the most prestigious journalism prize in Latin America. <em>A Simple Story</em> is her first full-length publication in English.

'Guerriero irrefutably proves that journalism can be one of the beaux arts' Mario Vargas Llosa