On Bullfighting

Bullfighting – the ultimate spectator sport. Acclaimed novelist A. L. Kennedy unpeels the layers and explains the mechanics before dissecting them with surgical precision. Beyond the theatre, the costume and the well-worn plot she focuses on the fact that a man faces his death while a crowd looks on. The result is a startling confrontation with her own, and mankind’s, mortality.

Reviews of On Bullfighting

"One of the best books of the year" — Jeanette Winterson "On Bullfighting casts an unofficial eye over a world of male exploit; the public spectacles are treated with a fresh particularity, the inner landscapes of pain with an ardent, high-risk honesty" — Julain Barnes "Informative, minutely observed and beautifully written" Independent "An ecclectic and fascinating cultural history" Observer "A strange and beautiful book" — Michael Ignatieff