Dancer - Tapa dura

A remarkable novel loosely based on the life of world famous dancer Rudolf Nureyev by the author of This Side of Brightness. Rudik, as the boy is called, appears at the beginning aged six, dancing for weary Russian troops trudging back from the front through a wasteland of ice and snow to the city of Ufa. We follow his life with his parents and his problems with the father who wanted him to become a military commissar. When he slunk off to watch ballet, his father beat him. This tale of the boy who became the greatest dancer in the world is made into fascinating fiction by a master craftsman.

This novel opens with a scene of war which is destined to become a classic: trudging back from the front through a ravaged and icy wasteland, their horses dying around them, their own hunger rendering them almost savage, the Russian soldiers are exhausted as they reach the city of Ufa, desperate for food and shelter. They find both, and then music and dance. And there, spinning unafraid among them, dancing for the soldiers and anyone else who¿ll watch him, is one small pale boy, Rudolf. This is Colum McCann¿s dancer. Rudolf, a prodigy at six years old, became the greatest dancer of the century, redefined dance, rewrote his own life, and died of AIDS before anyone knew he had it. This is an extraordinary life transformed into extraordinary fiction by one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation. One kind of masculine grace is perfectly matched to another in Colum McCann¿s beautiful and daring novel.