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Dancer: Stunning, bestselling novel based on the real life of Rudolf Nureyev

Irish Book Awards

Dancer: Stunning, bestselling novel based on the real life of Rudolf Nureyev

Colum McCann

A multi-voiced novel that reconstructs Rudolf Nureyev’s life through the people around him, moving from the Second World War to 1980s New York. Fame, desire, art, and exile are kept in tense balance throughout.

Rudolf Nureyevballetartist portraitCold Warexilefame and desire

Work Information

A chorus of witnesses brings Rudolf Nureyev’s life into focus.

Drawing on biographical facts, the novel links together the memories of the people who knew Rudolf Nureyev. It follows him from a Soviet childhood through war, exile, and the glittering loneliness of New York, and shows the heat and cost that gathered around a genius.

Book Information

Publisher
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Published
2003-10-06
Pages
384 pages
Language
英語
Size
13.3 x 2.3 x 19.6 cm
ISBN-13
9780753817049
ISBN-10
0753817047
Price
1195 JPY
Category
洋書/Literature & Fiction/Literary

Stunning, bestselling novel based on the real life of Rudolf Nureyev from an acclaimed author. This novel opens on a battlefield: trudging back from the front through a ravaged and icy wasteland, their horses dying around them, their own hunger rendering them almost savage, the Russian soldiers are exhausted as they reach the city of Ufa, desperate for food and shelter. They find both, and then music and dance. And there, spinning unafraid among them, dancing for the soldiers and anyone else who'll watch him, is one small pale boy, Rudolf. This is Colum McCann's dancer: Rudolf, a prodigy at six years old, who became the greatest dancer of the century, who redefined dance, rewrote his own life, and died of AIDS before anyone knew he had it. This is an extraordinary life transformed into extraordinary fiction by one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation. One kind of masculine grace is perfectly matched to another in Colum McCann's beautiful and daring new novel.

Colum McCann was born in Dublin in 1965. His fiction has won numerous international awards including the Rooney Prize, the Ireland Fund of Monaco Princess Grace Memorial Award, a Pushcart Prize, and Esquire magazine's Writer of the Year award in 2003. In 2005 he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Film. He was recently inducted into the Hennessy Hall of Fame in Dublin. His work has been published in twenty-six languages. He has travelled widely and is based in New York, where he lives with his wife and children.

Reviews

  • 10年前と感動は同じ

    キンドルホワイトを購入して、お初のダウンロードが本書でした。10年前に紙の本で読みましたが、ヌレエフを人間として描いている優れた小説と思いました。今回電子で読んでもその感動は同じ。ちなみに、キンドルはとても便利で読みやすいですね。本書と合わせて気に入っています。

  • danseur proves ballet is boring

    Not what was expected . pretty boring to be honest . seemed the author was as bored with its subject , a famous danseur, as we were.

  • brilliant novel about a most unusual person. Deep insights into post-war provincial Russia.

    Extremely well written and structured. Sensitive characterisations. Moving portraits of the teachers and parents and sister left behind in the grim provinces (Ufa) after Nureyev's defection. Vivid evocation of Soviet life during the Cold War. It's an achievement to write so well about the life of a great artist, whose qualities are in the end, a mystery . Secondary characters also brilliantly conveyed, such as Yulia and Fonteyn. The author must know a lot about ballet, as he shows the dedication, attitude to pain, and sources of artistry very convincingly. Congratulations to McCann!

  • A difficult read.

    Not an easy read. No chapter headings or clues as to who is narrating the story. If it hadn’t been a book club read I would have abandoned it.

  • Biografisches zu Person und Zeit in Romanform: Nureyev und der Kalte Krieg

    Ein Roman, der sich durch viele interessante Perspektivwechsel auszeichnet und nach dessen Lektüre man sich nicht nur intensiver in die Biografie Nureyevs vertiefen (z.B. Diane Solway: Nureyev), sondern auch die Zeit des Kalten Krieges und den Exodus von Künstlern in den Westen näher studieren möchte. 'Dancer' stellt meines Erachtens nicht nur für Ballett- und/oder Geschichtsinteressierte eine Bereicherung und ein kurzweiliges Lesevergnügen dar. Wer der englischen Sprache ausreichend mächtig ist, sollte es auf jeden Fall im Original lesen. Die deutsche Übersetzung liest sich an der ein oder anderen Stelle ein wenig holprig.

  • Amazing read! Nourishing!

    It's like you get into his head, into his heart, into his soul! From time to time I wonder how the research was done to get details of ballet shoe making, of the fear of Soviet families of defectors, of food shortages. As soon as I finished, I began to reread!

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