The Sun and Other Stars

By: Brigid Pasulka

Narrated by: Nick Mondelli

In the seaside town of San Benedetto, soccer (or calcio) is more than just a sport: it's an obsession. Twenty-two-year-old Etto, however, couldn't care less about soccer. His twin brother Luca, a rising soccer star, died tragically in a motorcycle accident, and their mother, unable to cope with her grief, drowned herself on the anniversary of Luca's death. But then Yuri Fil, a Ukrainian soccer star, takes refuge from the paparazzi in a nearby villa, and Etto accidentally falls into Yuri's orbit - and that of Yuri's beautiful and tough sister, Zhuki. Under their influence, he begins to learn that the game of soccer might not be a total waste of time and that life might have more to offer him than he would have ever believed possible.

©2013 Brigid Pasulka (P)2014 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Critic reviews

"[A] heartwarming second novel from award-winning writer Pasulka... [She] scores a refreshing success with her affectionate portrait of a small-town community and her fresh angle on an aching heart." - Kirkus Reviews

"With a magician's sleight of hand, Brigid Pasulka once again conjures up a stunning chorus of characters... The Sun and Other Stars is storytelling at its best, and Pasulka has made magic with this wise, poignant tale of love, community, and the sport that brings them all together!" - Gail Tsukiyama, author of The Samurai's Garden

"How in the world did I just lose my heart to the entire village of San Benedetto, to its butchers and playboys and slackers and, most of all, its large population of swaggering elderly (mea culpa) soccer fans? Or maybe the question is this: How can a story about unbearable grief be so funny, so bawdy, so vibrant with the earthy joys of ordinary life? To that one, I know the answer: when it is told by someone with the uncommon wit of the fearless, tender, wise Brigid Pasulka. The Sun and Other Stars is, as its title promises, a wondrous and radiant novel." - Julia Glass, author of The Widower's Tale and Three Junes

"What a smashing novel. Even more intricately braided and moving than her excellent first one. Fans of both Dante and the Azzuri will find plenty to relish and celebrate." - James McManus, author of Going to the Sun and Positively 5th Street

A Little Getaway...

I don't know soccer.
I don't like soccer.
This puts me an the main character and narrator of this wonderful book on the same page from the start.
Come travel to a small town in Italy, where everyone knows everyone's business, and there's so many secrets and so much gossip and so much caring that you don't know where they all end and being and converge. Throw in a disgraced soccer star who shies away from the limelight and comes to this small town for reasons that are plausible (if unclear), and you realize how interconnected we all are.
There is much to grieve in this book - the loss of family, of friends, of property, of dreams, of innocence. But there's much to gain as well. It's not a sad, depressing read, though there are very poignant observations about love and loss and grief; it provides messy reconciliations and some happy nuanced endings.
It's a perfect book to read on a lazy summer afternoon. The narrator makes this book just that much better.