DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

They Shot the Piano Player

A Graphic Novel

Fernando Trueba author Javier Mariscal illustrator

Format:Hardback

Publisher:SelfMadeHero

Published:3rd Oct '24

Should be back in stock very soon

They Shot the Piano Player cover

An investigation and celebration of the origins of the world-renowned Latino musical samba-jazz movement Bossa Nova, They Shot The Piano Player captures a fleeting time bursting with creative freedom at a turning-point in Latin American history in the ’60s and ’70s, before the continent was riven by totalitarian regimes.

Francisco Tenório Cerqueira Júnior, born in Rio de Janeiro, was one of the most recognized musicians of the samba-jazz movement. At 3 a.m. on 18 March 1976, after giving a concert at the Gran Rex in Buenos Aires, the 34-year-old pianist went out to get some cigarettes. He was never seen again.

What happened that night? This is the question that moves the narrator of this documentary graphic novel to initiate an investigation into the fateful events that led to the death of a musician destined to change the course of Brazilian music forever.

They Shot the Piano Player is a graphic novel to rival Maus or Persepolis. Its story is a reminder of recent history which, though only half a century old, seems very yesteryear. * The Indiependent *
Well, simply put, it’s glorious… It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Bossa Nova fan per se; all you need to know is that Trueba and Mariscal have knocked it out of the park all over again. * Bookmunch *

ISBN: 9781914224249

Dimensions: 190mm x 260mm x 25mm

Weight: 511g

256 pages