LEGS (Nogi)

• Novel
• 2007
• 239 pp
• Publishers: Amphora, St Petersburg

A Nabokovian drama on the football pitch

Semyon Shuvalov, a young boy from the suburbs of Moscow, has neither interests nor talents, except the one passion that consumes him—football. Quite soon it becomes clear to everyone: his way to the world’s top football players’ list won’t be long. Oligarch Koplevich, owner of a famous English team, wants to buy the Russian football prodigy—but this is not what Semyon dreams about. He claims that the only team he would leave for is Barcelona, because they don’t play a mechanical game, but give an authentic and inspiring performance on the football pitch. His narrow escape from Koplevich, who goes to great lengths to lure Semyon in, ends up in a Spanish embassy and, finally, in Barcelona.

Though Semyon does nothing—except love football and play it passionately and with mastery— to try to make his way to the top, he is already there, with the crowds of fans who consume the merchandise with his face on it. All he is interested in is the wondrous world of the irrational game—its whimsical logic is spellbinding to him. At some stage, Semyon realizes he has no adversaries; even among the best players there is no full-back to prevent the forward from scoring a goal. Or is it because they do not want to; or—even worse— are being paid to keep Semyon’s way to the gate clear?

Just like Luzhin in Nabokov’s THE LUZHIN DEFENCE, paradoxically trapped by his genius, Semyon’s mind shifts, and he finds himself very close to the exposure of a global football conspiracy…

Praise for the novel

«There is some literary substance in this novel which enables us to feel the supernatural atmosphere of the game better than a five-hour record of the most beautiful goals of the season».
Afisha