Dynamo

by Tariq Goddard

Moscow, 1938. As Stalin's economic plans roll out across the country, and the unions buckle beneath impossible targets; as Europe rumbles on towards war, and the NKVD tightens its stranglehold on the nation, the star striker for Spartak, champions of the USSR, and the workers' football team, is struck down by a virulent strain of love-sickness and refuses to get out of bed. The eyes of Moscow are upon him, and with a critical game against Dynamo (the team of the secret police) in only a few days time, Spartak's unbeaten run looks set to end. Which would, perhaps, be no bad thing. For the eyes of the secret police are unwaveringly trained on Copic and Tomsky, the manager and trainer for Spartak, who are faced with the choice between throwing the championship, or placing their lives, and those of their team mates in unequivocal, terrible danger. Love affairs, conspiracies, vodka-soaked evenings, the settling of old scores and the making of impossible choices, are all played out against the frozen Moscow landscape in this sparkling, suspenseful and vibrant second novel.

288 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2004

About the author

Tariq Goddard was born in London in 1975. He read Philosophy at King’s College London. His first three novels were shortlisted for various awards including Whitbread (Costa) First Novel Award, Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize. His fourth and fifth books won the Independent Publishers Gold medal for Horror Writing and Silver medal for Literary Fiction respectively. He lives on a farm in Wiltshire with his wife and children.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

A highly fictionalised, and not too authentic take on the dilemma facing Soviet-era Russian football (soccer) club, Spartak Moscow in 1938, when Stalin had began to see them as a political threat. Dynamo Moscow was the name of the secret police's football (soccer) team! The highly fictionalised aspect, made it difficult to get the real history of this read, so I'd suggest online research would be preferable, which is what I had to do in the end. Still gets a Three Stars though :)

2010 read

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel by Tariq Goddard presents a story of the coach of real life Soviet soccer teams navigating the political dynamics. The main character, Copic, is the coach of Spartak, which represents leather, texiles, and food co-op workers, and becomes the symbol of workers rooting interests and the only real way to dissent against the Stalinist regime. The stacked team is Dynamo, which represents the NKVD and therefore the Communist Party. When Spartak wins game after game unexpectedly, Copic is told to order Spartak to throw the game versus Dynamo so to not undermine the state, or else go to the gulag. The novel underscores the way that sports can be avenues for dissent even under the most trying of circumstances, and given its unpredictable nature, also presents the chance for state propaganda to be performed though it can fail.