An Evening with Dimitry Elias Léger in conversation with Terence Shepherd

🎟 This event is FREE and open to the public and books will be available for purchase the night of the event! An RSVP grants general entry, but seating is not guaranteed, so please try and show up early. Please RSVP only if you intend to join us. Can't make the event?

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.

Terence Shepherd is a transformational media leader with a keen focus on audience-centric growth and relationally building staff potential. Most recently, he served as news director for KPBS Public Media in San Diego, managing an award-winning newsroom of reporters, hosts, editors, producers and videographers. Prior to joining KPBS, Shepherd worked at WLRN in South Florida, where he had been news director since 2013. Before switching to radio, he was a business editor at the Miami Herald and held various editing positions at the Boca Raton News. He is past chairman of RTDNA, was Region 13 chair, and led its ethics committee. A native of Louisville, Ky., Terrence is a past president of the South Florida Black Journalists Association and was a fellow in the 2016 Next Generation Leadership professional development cohort. He has degrees from the University of Virginia and Florida Atlantic University.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Books & Books