Skip to footer

World Cup: Literary stars face off soccer-style in Penguin UK's Penguin Cup

In the Penguin Cup, writers from 16 countries are playing in imaginary match-ups.

|
Sergei Grits/AP
In the real World Cup, Algeria's El Arbi Hillel Soudani (l.) and Belgium's Vincent Kompany (r.) fight for the ball during the group H World Cup soccer match between Belgium and Algeria at the Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

Yes, soccer fans love to see their favorite players face off. But how about Jane Austen going up against Gabriel Garcia Marquez? Or Ernest Hemingway competing against Haruki Murakami?

Penguin UK has created a way for authors to do just that with their new World Cup-themed tournament. The publisher created teams for 16 of the countries currently competing in the soccer championship and filled their teams with literary stars. For example, Emile Zola is currently serving as goalie for France.

“Sixteen of the world’s literary giants battle it out for supremacy,” Penguin UK wrote on its website.

The publisher also includes a detailed breakdown of exactly how each player would perform. For example, for the American team, “the creative Hemingway and Fitzgerald offer contrasting styles but play consistently well together: one offers a blunt, direct path through the opposition’s defence, while the other can conjure a fluid style like no other… Potential weak links include JD Salinger and Thomas Pynchon, who have undeniable talent but can occasionally go missing.” 

(Meanwhile, one author was happy about the idea – on his Facebook page, writer Nick Hornby called his spot on the UK team “my proudest moment in football and literature.”)

What’s unclear is how winners will be determined, but Penguin UK is letting fans gamble on the outcomes. The publisher has chosen a book from each country and is offering consumers a 10 percent discount on the title. If, however, they believe in their team, they can wait until the country beats another and moves on, at which point the discount becomes 20 percent, and so on. But if a country loses, the title goes back to full price.

Are you interested in a Nabokov-Fitzgerald faceoff? Check out the Penguin UK Penguin Cup here.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to World Cup: Literary stars face off soccer-style in Penguin UK's Penguin Cup
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2014/0623/World-Cup-Literary-stars-face-off-soccer-style-in-Penguin-UK-s-Penguin-Cup
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe