The Penalty [Paperback]

Mal Peet (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 2009

"Any reader who starts this astounding novel will be hard-pressed to put it
down. Stunning, original, and compelling." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

As the city of San Juan pulses to summer’s sluggish beat, its teenage soccer prodigy, El Brujito, the Little Magician, vanishes without a trace — right after he misses a penalty kick and loses a big game for his team. Sports reporter Paul Faustino is reluctantly drawn into the mystery of the athlete’s disappearance, and as a story of corruption and murder unfolds, must confront the bitter history of slavery and the power of the occult. This gripping novel from the author of KEEPER and TAMAR is not to be missed.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This companion novel to Keeper (2005) picks up the story of South American sports journalist Paul Faustino, who is drawn into a wild, esoteric mystery after a young soccer prodigy disappears. Although Peet's decision to set the story in a generalized fictional South American country may spark controversy, once again, he tells a fascinating, complex tale that incorporates sports, the occult, and South American history and culture. "For me time is folded, like cloth," says one character, and the same is true of Peet's experimental narrative, which leaps between Faustino's contemporary viewpoint and the historical voice of an African man who survived the Middle Passage and the graphic brutality of slave life. Jerky transitions between story lines and some clichéd language distract from the frequent lyricism, vivid magic, and rich, unsettling themes. The surface mystery will intrigue readers, but it's the deeper questions about religious belief, salvation, and how best to confront the past's shocking inhumanity that will linger. For another novel that blends twentieth-century life with African history and voodoo, suggest Susan Vaught's Stormwitch (2005). Engberg, Gillian --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"I can't begin to describe how terrific this book is. . . . A glorious, cartwheeling, magical, frightening story. . . . Peet uses the fact that soccer players are known to be superstitious — and that great soccer players can appear to be supernatural — to explore ideas of faith, luck, and corruption. But in doing that, he has somehow caught more of the magic and atmosphere of soccer than other, more straightforwardly descriptive writers." — Frank Cottrell Boyce, THE GUARDIAN

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick; Reprint edition (March 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763643394
• ISBN-13: 978-0763643393
• Product Dimensions: 4.8 x 0.8 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,081,711 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mysticim,magic realism and soccer in South America, May 23, 2008

By 

F. J. Harvey "Cricket ,country music and a go... (Birmingham England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Penalty (Hardcover)

Mal Peet garnered a number of awards in the field of Young Adult Fiction with Keeper ,his debut novel .On the surface this would appear to be much the mixture as before-a key figure in the previous novel - South American sports journalist Paul Faustino -reappears ;the book features a soccer player in a pivotal role and there is a dose of religion and mysticism thrown into the mix as well.All pretty similar to Keeper but this time out the role of soccer is relatively muted and soccer mad boys who relished the vivid evocation of matches in the earlier book will perhaps be disappointed by the absence of any such passages in this book .The Penalty is a darker ,scarier book with more focus on religion and the troubled history of South America than on "then beautiful game"

Faustino becomes involved in the disappearance of a soccer prodigy -the gifted teenageer El Brujito (the little magician)who simply disappears after being substituted in a big game .Faustino's search takes him upriver ,to a remote and virtually inaccessible part of the jungle where he finds a world still largely in thrall to the Old Gods ,those of Africa and with their roots in slavery
Much of the book takes place in flashback with the narrative being provided by a captive African slave and he tells of transportation to Lation America ,the survival of the old ways and also features some quite violent scenes of murder and sexual violation .It is abook over which an air of violence and coruption ,both moral and legal, hangs and I am unsure of its susitability for juvenile audiences on these grounds
It is strongly written and powerful but too dark and distiurbing to be an auatomatic recommendation for soccer loving kids and adults who enjoyed the previous book .I would instead urge it upon those who like South American fiction as it gives an interesting British take on the themes commmon to Latin American novels