Items related to The Rider

The Rider - Softcover

Tim Krabbe

  • 4.22 out of 5 stars
    8,639 ratings by Goodreads
 
9780747559412: The Rider
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0747559414 ISBN 13: 9780747559412
Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks, 2002

Synopsis

THE RIDER describes one 150-kilometre race in just 150 pages. In the course of the narrative, we get to know the forceful, bumbling Lebusque, the aesthete Barthelemy, the young Turk Reilhan and the mysterious 'rider from Cycles Goff'. Krabbe battles with and against each of them in turn, failing on the descents, shining on the climbs, suffering on the (false) flats. The outcome of the race is, in fact, merely the last stanza of an exciting and too-brief paean to stamina, suffering and the redeeming power of humour. This is not a history of road racing, a hagiography of the European greats or even a factual account of his own amateur cycling career. Instead, Krabbe allows us to race with him, inside his skull as it were, during a mythical Tour de Mont Aigoual.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Publisher

"The Rider is a great read and a great ride. Krabbé's half-day race, delivered kilometer by kilometer onto the page, shows the sport for what it is: painful, exhilarating, tactical, relational, fast, slow, dangerous, consuming, prone to mechanical failure, heroic, futile..." -Donald Antrim "...there's something about Krabbé's spare writing style that lulls even uninitiated readers into a sort of trance-presumably not unlike that of the long-distance racer moving ever closer to the finishing line."-Time Out New York
"Compelling...irradiated by an intense love of cycling and a fascination with the nature of the racing experience... [Krabbé] captures the rhythm of the race."-The Economist
"A complex meditation on the nature of extreme physical and mental exertion, wrapped in the guise of a simple account of one bicycle race. It will leave you wrung out, exhilarated, and relieved that you didn't break any bones while experiencing it."-Bookforum

About the Author

Tim Krabbe is a chess as well as a cycling enthusiast and one of Holland's leading writers. His many books include the noir novels THE VANISHING and THE CAVE. He lives in Amsterdam. Sam Garrett, a former wire-service correspondent, is the translator of THE CAVE, also by Tim Krabbe, THE GATES OF DAMASCUS by Lieve Joris and SILENT EXTRAS by Arnon Grunberg.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Bloomsbury Paperbacks
Publication date
2002
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0747559414
ISBN 13 
9780747559412
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
160
Rating
  • 4.22 out of 5 stars
    8,639 ratings by Goodreads