An Evening with Dimitry Elias Léger

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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.
Death of the Soccer God by Dimitry Elias Legér is a passionate and improbable love story, and a roaring Pan-American tale about the price of fame. Inspired by the unbelievable yet true story of an intrepid young Haitian immigrant and energized with the high-voltage fervor of a packed stadium, Death of the Soccer God is a heady dance between life and death, an answer to the eternal question: can love save us?

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 journalism and fiction writing, Léger has performed diplomatic work on behalf of Haiti since 2005, including at the World Economic Forum and NGOs dedicated to disaster relief. He splits his time between Pennsylvania and France.

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