A trip into the exciting world of team sports – basketball in Germany
Thomas Pletzinger returns to a world that was once his home: changing rooms, sports halls, team buses – the world of basketball. Pletzinger spends a season with the professional team Alba Berlin as a participating observer. What concerns him are the people and their stories: the players, trainers, managers and fans. How is a team put together? How do you win a championship? How do you survive the enormous pressure?
Thomas Pletzinger describes the fascination of the sport, its aestheticism and culture, the joy and euphoria of winning, but also the disappointment of losing, the pain of training and the monotony of travel – and he also writes about himself and his enthusiasm for this sport. He gets remarkably close to the protagonists, and describes special moments and the dramas that occur behind the scenes. With literary means he examines the appeal and the horrors of professional sport.
A book for everyone who wants to find out more about professional sport beyond everyday sports coverage.
“Thomas Pletzinger’s restless, inventive Funeral for a Dog is the best German-language novel published in English this spring” (Richard Lea/ The Guardian UK on “Funeral for a Dog”)
