Home and Away
Writing the Beautiful Game
Karl Ove Knausgaard author Fredrik Ekelund author Don Bartlett translator Sean Kinsella translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:2nd Nov '17
Should be back in stock very soon

He likes caipirinhas and Brazil.
In Home and Away, two writers use football and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil to reflect on life and death, art and politics, class and literature and the most important question: was this the best football championship ever?
Karl Ove Knausgaard and fellow writer Fredrik Ekelund kick around thoughts and ideas on football, life, art and politics.
Karl Ove Knausgaard is sitting at home in Skåne with his wife, four small children and a dog. He is watching football on TV and falls asleep in front of the set. He likes 0-0 draws, cigarettes, coffee and Argentina.
Fredrik Ekelund is away in Brazil, where he plays football on the beach and watches matches with friends. Fredrik loves games that end up 4-3 and teams that play beautiful football. He likes caipirinhas and Brazil.
In Home and Away, two writers use football and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil to reflect on life and death, art and politics, class and literature and the most important question: was this the best football championship ever?
[It is] fascinating, insightful... Engrossing. -- Nick Rennison * Sunday Times *
Home and Away is deeply intelligent, enjoyable and sometimes funny. -- Simon Kuper * Financial Times, Book of the Year *
An entirely engrossing exchange of ideas, affection and memory… [A] genuinely engaging two-hander of real affection and insight. -- Barney Ronay * Literary Review *
Knausgaard is a writer with an astonishing ability to elevate the prosaic… As a reading experience, Home and Away is diverting, indulgent and stealthily enjoyable. Just as it probably was to write. * Esquire, Book of the Year *
At its core, Home and Away is a story about two men doing what they can to keep a friendship afloat, even from continents away. * New Yorker *
For a book which, at heart, is no more than two friends chatting about football, there is a lot to like. * The Economist *
Their correspondence is, at times, very personal and the reader gets the impression that the two writers are connecting on a deeper level, able to express views and thoughts that they wouldn’t share with anyone else. It is this feeling that as a reader you are being welcomed into a lively conversation about politics, life and everything in between, which makes the book so enjoyable and engrossing. -- Chris Tilbury * Prospect *
The pair make lively correspondents. -- Max Liu * i *
It's fun and possibly a fruitful format for future tournaments. -- Giles Smith * The Times Books of the Year *
It is worth having a read of this…to be reminded again of the joy of sport and how it adds colour and passion and pleasure to modern life. -- Paul Rouse * Irish Examiner *
ISBN: 9781784702359
Dimensions: 198mm x 130mm x 27mm
Weight: 301g
432 pages