Dancer

Description

A Russian peasant who became an international legend, a Cold War exile who inspired millions, an artist whose name stood for genius, sex, and excess--the magnificence of Rudolf Nureyev's life and work are known, but in this novel McCann reinvents this erotically charged figure, willful, lustful, and driven by a never-to-be-met need for perfection, through the light he cast on those who knew him. Spanning four decades and many worlds, from the horrors of Stalingrad to the wild abandon of New York in the eighties, McCann tells the story through a chorus of voices: there is Rudi's first ballet teacher, who rescues her protégé from the stunted life of his town; Yulia, whose sexual and artistic ambitions are thwarted by her Soviet-sanctioned marriage; and Victor, the Venezuelan hustler, who reveals the lurid underside of the gay celebrity set. McCann evokes the distinct consciousness of the man and the glittering reflection of the myth.--From publisher description.

First Sentence

Four winters. They built roads through drifts with horses, pitching them forward into the snow until the horses died, and then they ate the horsemeat with great sadness.

Subjects

Other Editions

• Dancer: A NovelPaperbackPicador2004-02-01
• DancerWeidenfeld & Nicolson2003-01-01
• DancerMetropolitan Books2003-01-01
• DancerPaperbackHarperCollins Publishers Limited2003-01-01
• DancerHardcoverMetropolitan Books2003-01-06
• DancerAudio CDSound Library2004-02-01