Twenty-eight-year-old Rodolfo, who grew up poor and hungry in a flat with a leaking tin roof, has dreamed of winning at Laborde ever since he was a boy. Journalist Leila Guerriero follows him as he prepares for the championship, shredding his muscles, his feet and his nerves in the punishing, relentless struggle to achieve perfection - until, at 5.30am on 12 January, the winner is announced...
Combining electrifying storytelling and razor-sharp observation, this is a riveting true story of hardship, passion and dedication; of what it means to sacrifice everything to win, while knowing that ultimately it will destroy you.
Leila Guerriero (b. 1967) is one of Argentina's foremost journalists and writers, and has published articles in numerous newspapers and periodicals in South America, Spain and Italy, including El País, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone. In 2010, she won the CEMEX+FNPI Award, the most prestigious journalism prize in Latin America. A Simple Story is her first full-length publication in English.
'Guerriero irrefutably proves that journalism can be one of the beaux arts' Mario Vargas Llosa

A Simple Story: Dancing for His Life

Biographies & Memoirs

LEILA GUERRIERO

Arts & Literature

Pushkin Press

'An epic of noble proportions' SpectatorA thrilling journey in search of the legendary malambo dance of Argentina, and one Gaucho who faces the biggest contest of his lifeEvery year, at the height of summer, the remote Argentinian village of Laborde holds the prestigious national malambo contest. Little known outside the Argentinian pampas, the malambo is a centuries-old gaucho dance, governed by the most rigid rules and shatteringly physically demanding. It is the object of obsession for thousands of young working-class men, who sacrifice their spare time, their bodies and what little money they have to try to win the title of Malambo Champion. The twist is that a Malambo Champion may never compete again.In 2011, Leila Guerriero travelled to Laborde for what was supposed to be a brief investigation into this intriguing contest. But on the second night, one dancer's towering performance takes her breath away - he doesn't win, but Guerriero, irresistibly drawn, spends the next year following him in his preparations for the 2012 festival. In this remarkable work of reportage Guerriero proves herself to be as sharp-eyed as Gay Talese, as lyrical as Norman Mailer.

A Simple Story: In Search of Argentina's Gaucho Dancers

Strange Fruit

Ullstein Verlag GmbH

Plano Americano

Universidad Diego Portales

Una historia sencilla

ANAGRAMA NACIONAL

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Books by LEILA GUERRIERO