Seconds Out
1st Edition
Published on 12. August 2010
978-1-84765-240-9 (ISBN)
Description
New York, 1923, the Argentine Luis Angel Firpo, called the Wild Bull of the Pampas, knocks out of the ring the American Jack Dempsey, heavyweight champion of the world. In Buenos Aires, the match is transmitted on the radio and Firpo proclaimed world champion. However, the referee does not count the time outside the ring. Dempsey comes back and knocks the challenger out. The Wild Bull of the Pampas will have been world champion for only 17 seconds.
Trelew, Patagonia, 1973: to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the local paper, the sports journalist recalls this mythical match. The head of the cultural section celebrates the first performance of Mahler's First Symphony in the Teatro Colon of Buenos Aires conducted by Richard Strauss.
In addition to these two great events of the 14th of September 1923 there is also a man found hanged in a hotel room: it is never known whether murder or suicide caused his death. Classical music, sport and crime come together to recreate the past in a disturbing investigation that questions the role of the media in the construction of popular culture.
Trelew, Patagonia, 1973: to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the local paper, the sports journalist recalls this mythical match. The head of the cultural section celebrates the first performance of Mahler's First Symphony in the Teatro Colon of Buenos Aires conducted by Richard Strauss.
In addition to these two great events of the 14th of September 1923 there is also a man found hanged in a hotel room: it is never known whether murder or suicide caused his death. Classical music, sport and crime come together to recreate the past in a disturbing investigation that questions the role of the media in the construction of popular culture.
Reviews / Votes
This is a subtle, complex book. At its heart is the fight itself or more precisely the fall of the champion whose essence is analysed in a virtuoso, slow-motion cut up into moments that crystallize an epoch. Finally, a novel that is not a film-script disguised as a novel from which a script is to be taken. A new generation of Argentinian writers, Martin Kohan and Rodrigo Fresan in the forefront, are showing that they are the worthy successors of Borges, Sabato and Bioy Casares * Le Devoir * An untypical book... It's the kind of intricate construction which in less skilful hands could become merely an academic exercise, but Kohan is no ivory-tower professor. -- Richard Lea * Guardian *All prices
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Profile Books Ltd
Product notice
Reflowable
ISBN-13
978-1-84765-240-9 (9781847652409)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Martin Kohan was born in 1967 in Buenos Aires where he lives . He is the author of an essay on Walter Benjamin. Seconds Out is the first of his novels to be translated into English. Ciencias Morales, his latest novel, won the prestigious Herralde Novel Prize in Spain.
