Bye, Bye Soccer

Book excerpt: Fiction. Translated from the Portuguese by Wilson Loria.Edilberto Coutinho, internationally renowned journalist, literary critic and writer, has been praised worldwide for his collection of short stories, Macarana Adeus. BYE, BYE SOCCER is the first English translation of these stories, considered by critics as a literary masterpiece. Written and published during the military dictatorship in Brazil, they are an example of literature of protest against the oppression and manipulation to which even sport was subjected. Soccer serves as both an emblem of Brazilian popular culture and as a metaphor for the complex social and political battles that were being waged on Brazilian soil at the time. Although the context of these stories is decidedly Brazilian, the themes of resistance and determination are universal.