num_pages: 473
description: "A Russian peasant who became an international legend, a Cold War exile who inspired the adoration of millions, an artist whose name was a byword for genius, sex, and excess. The magnificence of Rudolf Nureyev's life and work is known, but now Colum McCann reinvents this figure through the light he shed on the lives of those who knew him." Boldly embellishing the biographical facts, McCann tells the story through a chorus of voices. There is Anna Vasileva, Rudi's first ballet teacher, who, banished from St. Petersburg, rescues her preternaturally talented protege from the stunted life of his town; Yulia, whose sexual and artistic ambitions are thwarted by her Soviet-sanctioned marriage; Victor, a decadent Venezuelan, who revels in the hedonism of the gay celebrity set; Odile, the legendary cook, who finds love at middle age while feeding the great and their hangers-on. Spanning four decades and many worlds, from the killing fields of World War II to the wild abandon of New York's gaudy eighties, Dancer is peopled by a large cast of characters, obscure and famous, real and imagined.
language: German
title: Der Tänzer
titlecomplete: Der Tänzer
genres: Fiction, Historical, Ireland, Queer, LGBT, Novels, Irish Literature, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Russia
ratings_count: 5012
places: Paris, Ufa, St. Petersburg
awards: awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award
category: Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year
publisher: Rowohlt