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

'The theme of towering celebrity and its attendant vacuity is very well done.' (Chris Power THE TIMES)

'DANCER overflows with vibrant detail and evocative description.....McCann's books has a tremendous amount of life and energy.' (THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY)

McCann has achieved a tour de force in his re-imagined life of Rudolf Nureyev..... McCann spins a verbal rhapsody out of Nureyev's passions and longings, by turns soulful, flamboyant, in your face. (Brian Hennigan THE HERALD)

'Whether describing the Russian stepppe or New York's bathhouses, McCann's versatility is breathtaking.' (Elena Seymenliyska THE GUARDIAN)

McCann's fictionalised biography of ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev met with wide critical acclaim on its January publication and its availability in paperback will open up this remarkable story to a new audience' (HEAT)

'a mesmerising novel' (THE OBSERVER)

McCann's remarkable novel...... McCann's prose - nimble, lyrical and wispy - does full justice to the tragic story of a dancer who was the glory of his generation (THE SUNDAY TIMES)

'it's a strikingly original one (book), and as apparently effortless as one of Fonteyn's pirouettes or Nureyev's leaps into space. (Arminta Wallace THE IRISH TIMES)

a truly extraordinary novel (FAST FORWARD)

this is a brilliant portrait of an artist who could soar heavenwards on clay feet. (SUNDAY INDEPENDENT)

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.