Esteemed Hungarian writer Esterhazy blurs the lines between autobiography and fiction in this novel about a mother, perhaps his own, whose life centres around soccer. There isn't exactly a plot. It’s not every day you find a novel about a mother-son relationship conducted through the language of football. Esterházy belongs to a distinguished Hungarian family, and to say that he is steeped in his nation’s essence would be an understatement, for in many ways Hungary in all its glory is a third protagonist of this novel.   "For Esterházy’s real achievement in this brief novel is to use the language of football to produce a work that truly contains multitudes. Despite its title, if this novel is anything, it is definitely art, replete with all the requisite qualities: artfulness, artistry and a necessary artifice superbly grounded in existential reality." - Los Angeles Times.