Home and Away

“[F]or whom these letters resonate, the effect is powerful and cascading, a pleasing waterfall of imagery and intellect. Though the correspondence is mostly about soccer, it is also about so much more.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
 
“[A] captivating tribute to soccer. Soccer fans will love Home and Away: Writing the Beautiful Game, perhaps persuaded by the title alone. My mission, then, is to exhort readers less familiar with the sport to try this captivating and even profound book by two writers at the top of their game. . . . Lifelong soccer fans, the authors each write from a passionate fan’s point of view, often describing the same match with wildly differing opinions. This book spoke to me as a soccer player and fan, highlighting in sublime detail the players and plays from a dramatic tournament. . . . Both authors have a knack for metaphor and apply it liberally to their sports writing. . . . Among the unexpected pleasures of the book is the power of letter writing to tell stories and deepen relationships. The two friends write intensely about the match of the day, then launch into fascinating musings that never seem off-topic or tangential because they are connected in the minds of the writers, who have revealing takes about, say, the rise of anti-immigrant sentiments in Europe . . . or improving economic conditions in the Third World or Swedish feminism. . . . So yes, Home and Away is about soccer, but it is, unpredictably and delightfully, much more than that.” —The Seattle Times

“The book takes the form of a competitive exchange of emails over the course of a month, in which the writers take turns to outdo each other with long improvisations of thought inspired by watching football and going about their lives. It’s a deeply intelligent and enjoyable correspondence: superb analyses of game. . . . [Knausgaard’s] portrayal of life at home with his wife and four children, running his publishing house, travelling to speak at events, evoke a quiet, vivid and sociable happiness. The man who never laughs is frequently very funny.” —Financial Times
 
“Karl Ove Knausgaard and Fredrik Ekelund . . . conjure up something substantial in Home And Away. . . . The results are invigorating, unexpected.” —Sunday Herald
 
“Knausgaard is a writer with an astonishing ability to elevate the prosaic, not by superimposing great symbolic truths, but by examining it, describing it, almost fetishizing it. This, after all, is the real stuff of existence. Reading his books, one starts from a position of disbelief at the minutiae he explores . . . But if you persevere, you find yourself gradually absorbed into his world, you succumb to it, until you can’t get enough of these details, and find yourself wanting to wallow in them forever. Home and Away: Writing the Beautiful Game is no different. You might recoil from the concept, but it soon has you by the collar with the subtlest of grips. . . . The effect is part lyrical, part familiar, part philosophical. . . . As a reading experience, Home and Away is diverting, indulgent and stealthily enjoyable.” —Esquire UK
 
“[T]heir interplay takes on the familiar cut and thrust of a football match. . . . [A] genuinely unusual, genuinely engaging two-hander of real affection and insight.” —Literary Review
 
“This might be the oddest book ever written about football. It is also fascinating, insightful. . . . Both men are as keen to discuss art, politics and death as they are to reflect on the beautiful game, and this strange, unclassifiable but engrossing book is the result.” —The Sunday Times
 
“[F]ascinating and complex insights into the way ‘modern football’ is manufactured and disseminated, the way it reaches into our lives and what we make of it when it’s there. . . . From the rosy glow of remembered childhood televisions—Knausgaard makes a lovely note about the sound, just the sound, of a World Cup game on television on a summer evening—through to the semi-political assemblies of lower league away days, football means something to almost everybody. For all its tribal allegiances, in a world where culture and politics have splintered into ever more segregated niches, there is undoubtedly something non-denominational about football. . . . What [this book] do[es] is important because [it] think[s] about football as a part of life, not as some specialist endeavour.” —The Irish Times
 
“Readers looking for a gentle introduction to Mr. Knausgaard’s work could do worse than pick up a copy of Home and Away. . . . Mr. Knausgaard offers incisive observations on football in his typically understated tone, which can often be hilarious. . . . The best part of the book focuses on Brazil’s 7–1 thrashing in the semifinal at the hands of Germany. Mr. Knausgaard’s description . . . captures the sense of panic at the Mineirão stadium. And Mr. Ekelund’s portrait of Rio after the match is haunting. . . . For a book which, at heart, is no more than two friends chatting about football, there is a lot to like.” —The Economist