On Bullfighting

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 humankind’s, mortality. First published in 2000.

*

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.

Julian Barnes

*

Informative, minutely observed and beautifully written.

The Independent

*

A strange and beautiful book.

Michael Ignatieff

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