Learning to Lose
David Trueba, Mara Faye Lethem (translation)It is Sylvia’s 16th birthday, & her life as an adult is about to begin—not with the party she had been planning, but with a car accident & a broken leg. Behind the wheel is a talented young soccer player, just arrived from Buenos Aires & set for stardom on and off the field. As their destinies collide & a young romance is set in motion, across town, Sylvia's father & grandfather are finding their own lives suddenly derailed by a violent murder & a secret affair with a prostitute.
Set against the maze of Madrid’s congested & contested streets, Learning to Lose follows these 4 individuals as they swerve off course in unexpected directions. Each of them is dodging guilt & the fear of failure, but their shared search for happiness, love, purity, redemption, and, above all, a way to survive, forms a taut narrative web that binds the characters together.
From one of Spain’s most celebrated contemporary writers, Learning to Lose is a lucid & gripping view into the complexities of lives overturned & into the capriciousness of modern life, with its intoxicating highs & devastating lows.
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David Trueba was born in Madrid in 1969 & has been successful both as a novelist & as a scriptwriter. His debut, Four Friends, sold over 100,000 copies. Learning to Lose won the Critics Award in 2009.
Mara Faye Lethem is an award-winning translator & author of the novel A Person’s A Person, No Matter How Small.