From the acclaimed author of This Side of Brightness, the epic life and times of Rudolf Nureyev, reimagined in a dazzlingly inventive masterpiece-published to coincide with the tenth anniversary of Nureyevs deathA 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 Nureyevs life and work are known, but now Colum McCann, in his most daring novel yet, reinvents this erotically charged figure through the light he cast on those who knew him. Taking his inspiration from the biographical facts, McCann tells the story through a chorus of voices there is Anna Vasileva, Rudis 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.
