The Divine Canary
The Netherlands has been a world-class footballing nation since the early 1970s, but only in the past twenty years has a tradition of football literature sprung up. Oddly, the best of them, 'The Divine Canary', is not a book about Dutch soccer but a compelling socio-cultural sketch of Brazil in the light of its love of football.
Non-FictionPrint
Original title
De goddelijke kanarie
Author
August Willemsen
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It is literature, an ode to Brazilian football and, above all, to the talents of individual Brazilian players.
NRC Handelsblad
For a few hours a Brazilian amongst Brazilians. That’s the liberating sense of joy that awaits the reader of The Divine Canary.
Trouw
August Willemsen
August Willemsen (1936-2007) was a leading literary translator and man of letters. Among the major Portuguese and Brazilian writers he translated are Fernando Pessoa, Machado de Assis and Carlos Drummond de Andrade; he also published essays, diaries and letters.