The Rider

by Tim Krabbé, Sam Garrett (Translator)

Overview

The instant cult classic about biking, road racing, and the bicyclists who love their sport.

Originally published in Holland in 1978, The Rider went on to sell more than 100,000 copies. Brilliantly conceived and written at a break-neck pace, it is a loving, imaginative, and, above all, passionate tribute to the art of bicycle road racing.

Tim Krabbé begins this story at the very start of the Tour de Mont Aigoual, ready to race his rivals through the mountains of Central France. Over the course of the 150 pages that follows, Krabbé takes his bike 150 kilometers, and pulls his readers into the life of the sport he loves.

The Rider is beloved as a bicycle odyssey, a literary masterpiece, and the ultimate book for bike lovers as well as the arm-chair sports enthusiast.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781582342900
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	06/12/2003
Edition description:	First Paperback Edition
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	177,259
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.53(d)

About the Author

Tim Krabbé is one of Holland's leading writers, and his novels are published all over the world. His many books include The Vanishing, which was made into a successful film, and The Cave. He lives in Amsterdam.

Editorial Reviews

The Rider a beautiful brute, as hard and fast as a thin wheel in a concrete road.” —The Observer (UK)

“Its 148 pages will flash by in a blur of reckless, high-speed pleasure.” —The Independent (UK)

“The Rider is a great read—a great ride. Krabbé's half-day race, delivered kilometer by kilometer onto the page, shows the sport for what it is: painful, exhilarating, tactical, relational, fast, slow, dangerous, consuming, prone to mechanical failure, heroic, futile. The race—and the book about the race—becomes a raining and cold history of the rider's life. But to say that the race is the metaphor for the life is to miss the point. The race is everything. It obliterates whatever isn't racing. Life is the metaphor for the race.” —Donald Antrim

From the Publisher