Joseph O’Neill acclaimed author of Netherland (a New York Times Book Review Best Book of the year) comes to City of Asylum to share his latest novel Godwin. Partially set right here in Pittsburgh the book unfolds the odyssey of two brothers crossing the world in search of an African soccer prodigy who might change their fortunes.
“Often as I’m biking in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens I stop to watch the cricket matches and think of Netherland Joseph O’Neill’s brilliant novel of immigrant New York. With his new work Godwin he transports us to West Africa in pursuit of a mysterious soccer prodigy as well as to the offices of a Pittsburgh-based workers’ collective. His storytelling is so assured so nuanced that you’ll follow him anywhere. How does he do it? Why these obsessions—and why Pittsburgh? We’ll soon find out.” —Anderson Tepper Curator for World Literature at City of Asylum
The world of Godwin follows Mark Wolfe a brilliant if self-thwarting technical writer who lives in Pittsburgh with his wife Sushila and their toddler daughter. His half-brother Geoff born and raised in the United Kingdom is a desperate young soccer agent. He pulls Mark across the ocean into a scheme to track down an elusive prospect known only as “Godwin”—an African teenager Geoff believes could be the next Lionel Messi.
Narrated in turn by Mark and his work colleague Lakesha Williams Godwin is a tale of family and migration as well as an international adventure story that implicates the brothers in the beauty and ugliness of soccer the perils and promises of international business and the dark history of transatlantic money-making. Through these characters and this journey Joseph O’Neill investigates the legacy of colonialism in the context of family love global capitalism and the dreaming individual.
You can purchase your own copy of Joseph’s book Godwin at City of Asylum Bookstore.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Alphabet City, 40 W North Ave, Pittsburgh, United States
