intriguing with a good sense of heart and handling systemic racism and problems in society. thanks for the arc

I was drawn to the novel's off-kilter premise of a sports agent's dogged pursuit of an African soccer prodigy, and what that reading experience looks like for someone who doesn't care at all about soccer or sports in general. Certainly an empathy-building exercise throughout, but the structure of the novel was challenging, dividing chapters between the two most prominent characters, Lakesha Williams and Mark Wolfe. My patience was tested numerous times between the dueling narratives of contentious office politics in a technical-writing cooperative in Pittsburgh (where those two characters worked) and the wide-reaching search for the titular character, Godwin, spanning continents and countless hijinks. Practically all of the major characters were unlikable and given little dimensions. The separate threads finally converge at the end, but the denouement is so absurd and convoluted, I could barely believe it. Points for creativity, I guess, but I was left with a genuine sour note (let's just say that the future doesn't exactly work out in Lakesha's favor). Lengthy tangents on game theory, colonialism, philosophy, and extensive soccer history read as being overwritten. This is my first Joseph O'Neill book, and I'm intrigued how a white, Irish writer wrote such a scathing examination of the ills of white American privilege, toxic masculinity, and athletic exploitation. I'm unsure if O'Neill's writing style is normally this flippant or not. Definitely room for a larger conversation on who gets to tell what stories, but I was at least engaged with the research, writing craft, and plot developments. There was a missing component that prevented me from loving this novel.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for ARC access.

This is a terrific novel, with a very sympathetic main character, and well-written secondary characters. The pace is languid, but keeps moving forward in interesting ways.

I really really enjoyed this book! It was kind of slow starting out and then it really picked up. I will be recommending this book to a lot of people.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback.

More than a novel with a rising plot, climax, and denouement, O’Neill is telling a tale, spinning a yarn. Mark’s story ranges across three continents, while Lakesha’s stays planted within a web of office politics that blindside her. There are asides about World War II, the evolution of soccer tactics in the twentieth century, the slave trade, global refugees, climate change, endangered species, the challenges of midlife, and anything else the characters care to contemplate. Underneath it all, the meaning of family—biological, found, adoptive, and bought with cash—burbles, alongside the machinations of business, even when it purportedly means to do good in the world.

If you, like me, don’t care much for office politics, you might find Lakesha’s chapters too full of petty intrigue. If you, unlike me, don’t care much for global football, you might find Mark’s chapters mired in too much sporty detail. If you, like me, do care a quite a bit about global football, you might notice that the NWSL, the American women’s soccer league, is misnamed at one point. But trust me when I tell you that O’Neill brings all of it together in the end. Lakesha’s business and the power moves of a young upstart matter, and Mark’s attempts to find Godwin matter. But the kicker comes at the very end, when O’Neill ties it all up with a darkly hilarious bow of a punchline. If you pick up this novel, do not put it down until the end.

Full review essay to be published on The Wingback Monday, June 10.

Published by Pantheon on June 4, 2024

A character named Jean-Luc Lefebvre pontificates that “Sport is recreational and therefore optional. Nobody is under a duty to like it. Either it interests you or it doesn’t.” The sport that most of the world calls football has never interested me, although I have friends (most of whom were born outside of the US) who are passionate about the sport Americans call soccer. The trick that great storytellers conjure is making a reader care about a topic that is of little interest to them. Joseph O’Neill did that in Godwin, a book that is built around a potential soccer star from one of the world’s poorest nations.

While soccer is part of the novel's foundation, Godwin is more broadly about people and cultures that, while vastly different from each other in many ways, are united by the twin forces of soccer and corruption.At its heart, and more importantly, Godwin is about family, a fluid term that has differing and changing meanings.

The first section of Godwin is narrated by Mark Wolfe. Mark is a technical writer specializing in grant applications. He generally works from home and prefers to stay at home because travel and adventures “boil down to a sequence of uncontrollable, unpleasant, and unwanted events.” Those words turn out to be prescient.

Mark lives in Pittsburg and works in a cooperative of technical writers. An incident of rude behavior at his office — the kind of thing he usually avoids by working from home — is resolved by his agreement to take a leave of absence. Mark’s half-brother, Geoff Anibal, contacts him as his leave begins and asks for his help with a project in London. Mark doesn’t like Geoff but Mark’s wife Sushila convinces him that it would be good for him to spend time with his brother. Mark takes a trip to England to learn what Geoff wants. Their mutual mother lives in France but Mark has no desire to rekindle his relationship with her.

Geoff’s gig involves identifying promising soccer players (primarily from disadvantaged nations) and hooking them up with European teams. He describes himself as an intermediary or agent, depending on the services he provides, which seem to be scant. Geoff sends Mark on an adventure. It is an adventure that Mark must fund, knowing that Geoff’s promises to reimburse his expenses will come to nothing. The mission is to find a promising young soccer player named Godwin who lives in an unknown African nation and whose existence and prowess are only confirmed by a few minutes of video.

Mark’s mission generates about half the novel’s plot. In a manic mood, Mark enlists an aging French soccer agent (Lefebvre) as his partner. The partnership does not go as Mark planned. Lefebvre competes with Geoff to be the liveliest character and is by far the best storyteller.

The other half of the plot is centered on the cooperative that helps Mark earn his livelihood. Most sections of the novel that advance the plot thread are narrated by Lakesha Williams, a medical writer in the writer’s co-op. Her narrative fleshes out the cooperative’s key members, including Mark, who returns to work after his European adventure with renewed energy and purpose. Internal politics leads to a leadership change that Mark soon regrets and that leaves Lakesha feeling threatened. She will later experience conflict between her commitment to the ideals of the cooperative movement — “solidarity, self-responsibility, equity” — and her fading tolerance for new group members who are driven by a self-absorbed drive for power and dominance.

O’Neill fills the lives and backgrounds of significant characters with interesting details, from Lakesha’s initial reluctance to leave north Milwaukee to Lefebvre’s encyclopedic knowledge of soccer history. O’Neill details the cultural and political differences of the African nations that Lefebvre scouts for soccer talent. While this could the dull content of a treatise, O’Neill’s lively prose keeps the story in constant motion.

In subtle ways, O’Neill explores the world’s enduring difficulty with tribalism. One example is the co-op’s devolution from a group of supportive individuals working toward common goals to a group of battling factions. Another is the complaint of a German resident about the influx of Africans who disturb the established (white) order in his native land by increasing the demand for resources that the established order would rather not share. Another is his discussion of African nations in conflict. Far right complaints about “globalism” are reflected in conflicts between tribalism and cooperation.

In more direct ways, O’Neill explores the importance of family. Apart from Geoff, family members take on more prominent roles in the novel’s second half. Mark tolerates Suchila’s father, a racist Tamil immigrant, but he’s surprised when Suchila interferes with his family relationships by engaging in email correspondence with his mother. Surprising events tie together Mark’s mother, Geoff, Lefebre, and Mark. The story also touches upon Lakesha’s difficult relationship with her sister in Milwaukee.

We have families into which we are born, families we make for ourselves, and families that we fall into without giving the process much thought. Those concepts of family are each represented here. O’Neill recognizes that no two families are alike, but they have features in common, ranging from love and responsibility to resentment and exploitation.

The intertwined plot threads in Godwin — the search for Godwin and unrest at the co-op — come together to tell a captivating story. A surprise near the end upsets both plot threads, but they never unravel. Characters are forced to change but they endure because that’s what people do, regardless of culture or nationality. Sometimes they endure with the help of family, other times in spite of family strife. O’Neill’s ability to tell a story that is both familiar and different from any other I’ve read makes Godwin one of my favorite novels of 2024.

RECOMMENDED

I admit I was a bit baffled as to why there were two story lines in this intriguing novel about football. Lakesha is Mark's supervisor and she's struggling with keeping the technical writer on the straight, as is his wife. And then Mark takes off to Africa to help his half brother Geoff who is trying to start a sports agency and wants to sign the mysterious Godwin, Godwin, a teen in Africa, has only been seen in a video and he's impressive. Mark's quest takes him through the heart of football, complete with the unscrupulous Jean Luc while Lakesha is dealing with HR back in Pittsburgh. Why Lakesha? Well, it will all make sense at the end. I'm not a football fan (Ted Lasso is as far as I go) but that wasn't an issue because this isn't about football but about people. It's an interesting read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction.

This is a book under 300 pages. However it packs a lot in those many pages. On the surface, based on the book blurb it seemed to be a story about two brothers in a quest to discover the next football prodigy I far away Africa. However it's not just that. In parts it is a social commentary about colonialism, slavery, displacement, migration and the history and future of Africa. Thee author has satirically portrayed the western view of poorer nations and their peoples. It's also a trivia-packed essay on football (soccer not American football). This part may totally appeal to football fans. On the side there's a storyline revolving around group-work dynamics and office politics. There is also an underlying current of the complicated nature of family relationships. So as I said, a lot going on here. The prose was simple and engaging enough to keep me reading on. In fact it's even humorous in parts and brought a smile to my lips. This is not a book for everyone and definitely not a rushed read. You have to pick it up when you have the time to savour it and the patience for a slow-burn read. Maybe perfect for book clubs
Thank you NetGalley, Knopf Publishing Group and Joseph O'Neill for the ARC

I enjoyed meeting one character from another’s perspective and the use of alternating narrators worked really well to move this novel along. Both characters reveal themselves gradually and that worked for me. I liked L from the start and preferred her chapters. I’m not sure if that’s because she’s female like me and I could relate to her or if M was intentionally portrayed as an obnoxious snobby male (by himself.) The fact that I’d first met him through L’s eyes definitely biased me. His first chapter was not the easiest to read and I was lost in the weeds of his intelligentsia and the minutiae of Lefevre’s unrelated soccer anecdotes. L’s backstory, on the other hand, was fascinating. Back to M and Lefevre’s storytelling and again I felt like there were so many side roads! The plot seemed to happen in small bursts. It appeared sometimes to be very realistic and often seemd to require a suspension of belief. I enjoyed the twists and this book kept me guessing as to where it was all headed. Overall, it was a great story but I’m not sure the pacing worked for me. The ending seemed abrupt and a bit out there. Here there was no detail or minutiae as was offered in other parts of the novel. The writing is excellent and I learned a lot about soccer and Africa and recruitment in sports. Thanks to the author, NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy. This is a novel I’d like to talk to others about and I’d love some insight from the author as to what exactly he intended for his reader. Maybe I just didn’t “get” it?

This book was extremely well written. The two plot lines center on a depressed tech writer traveling with his brother across Africa to find a soccer prodigy and his supervisor’s struggle with her technical writing co-op. Unfortunately I just could not stay interested in the story. I wanted to but I could connect with the characters. I will absolutely read more of this author’s work. Thank you to Net Galley for the chance to read and review this book.

I was excited to read this book because of O'Neill's reputation and the fact that story hinged on soccer. The parts about the writing Co-op were unexpected, but I enjoyed them quite a bit.

I struggled to come up with a rating that I felt accurately represented my feelings about this book, because the book was well-written and had an interesting plot, but I just couldn't connect with it. How much of that was intentional? Both Mark and Lakesha are characters that struggle to connect to who they are or what they want to become, and that's how I felt about this book was written. Everyone was a very surface level character that was hard to connect with. The only people that felt like they had any depth were Lefebvre and Geoff, and their depth was more subtext than anything else.

Lakesha's story was fascinating to me, and I could have read an entire book focused on the co-op and everything to do with it. The intrigue as she was overthrown as co-lead and left something she believed in was one of the best parts of this story. But, it felt too brief. It felt like it was tacked on so that the ending would make sense.

Would I end up recommending this book to someone else? Yes. The writing was beautiful enough (I highlighted several passages) that I think many people would enjoy it. I do think it had the potential to be great, and ending up good isn't something that should be held against it.

An interesting book for me. Really two plots-the search for a potential soccer prodigy in Africa coupled with the dynamic of a group of technical writers working in a cooperative. O’Neill pulls off the impossible when he melds these two disparate story lines together. For me the most interesting part was the world of soccer-an introduction to the true skills needed to play the game and the simultaneous “dirty” understory of agents, middlemen, and exploitation of potential talent. It was a good read and look forward go reading other works by him.

Despite not knowing much about football I found this to be an engaging, well-written book. The book doesn't focus too much on the sport itself but on the trials and greed involved in recruiting talented players by any means necessary and also touches on workplace drama and academia. There are two (maybe two and half) distinct narrators which keeps the story interesting.

I loved the beginning of this book, the view from Lakesha, the manager at a business, with her opinions about a work colleague. Then it segued into a story about the work colleague, seeing everything from his point of view. That was a very interesting technique, and definitely made him more sympathetic, but I was just not as interested in his life.

He went on a very twisty, turny journey with different members of his family and other people, and after a while it felt a little repetitive, like I wanted to jump to the end of that part. It felt long but when I look at the page count it is not. I did get more interested when the POV went back to Lakesha. Those kinds of changes and unpredictability in business are interesting to me.

Probably if I was more interested in sports, I would have been more into this whole book. This author is a great writer and I look forward to his future works.

For fans of Joseph O'Neill's Netherland, Godwin offers a departure from sports-centric narratives, delving into the complexities of capitalism and human connection. Mark Wolfe, a grant writer, is drawn into an international adventure by his half-brother Geoff, a soccer scout, as they pursue a talented African player named Godwin. Through their journey, O'Neill exposes the ruthless world of soccer scouting and the moral dilemmas it entails, while also exploring themes of independence and colonialism. Interwoven with Mark's story is that of Lakesha Williams, providing insight into the world of technical writing and the pursuit of stability amidst financial uncertainty. Ultimately, Godwin is a thought-provoking exploration of greed, resilience, and the search for meaning in a globalized world.

Godwin is an African kid seen playing soccer in a wobbly video that has football coaches desperate to find him, because the talent they see is blowing their heads off. But where is he? Who is he? How to we get to him first?

There are two narrators to "Godwin." The first you. meet is Lakesha, who manages a coop of technical writers, each weird in their own way. Lakesha runs a tight ship .The first crack in the bow comes when one of her writers, Mark Wolfe, acts out and she places him on leave. This leaves Wolfe open to what's to come.

Wolfe is a pretty unmoored guy who only functions if he follows his wife's guidance. Once he goes to England to help out his feckless football agent brother without her common sense . . . oh, boy.

Wolfe stumbles around Africa, and Lakesha is trying to keep rebellious technical writers (visualize that!) employed and stable. Her sense of honesty, fairness, and equity are all challenged. At the same time, Wolfe is banging around Africa with questionable sorts looking for this kid who may or may not be a genius, or even exist. Believe it or not, these two story lines are going to meet. Really.

Although Lakesha (and Cutie) were my favorite characters, there's no way that workplace problems can compete with a barely-hinged guy stumbling around the African bush. "Godwin" comes to a satisfying end, and I was impressed with Joseph O'Neill's ability to tie it all up. I haven't read anything else by him, but I will.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a digital review copy of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.

Good and fairly straightforward narrative. Smooth writing, yet the drama wasn’t there for me to really engage the story.

I’m happy to be the first to rate this book on Goodreads. I enjoyed it, as it is well-written and covers a fascinating topic, international football. All that is known of Godwin is that he is an African child who excels at soccer. A grainy video of him playing indicates that he has the potential to be as good as Messi and will almost certainly be a big payoff for whoever discovers him. Geoff, a hapless soccer agent living in England, brings his brother, Mark, into the fray when he comes into possession of the video. Mark, a technical writer married and living in the US with his wife and toddler daughter, sees the potential for excitement in his rather boring life and enlists in the pursuit of Godwin.

This story is told from two POVs – Mark’s and co-worker Lakesha Williams’. It is more than just a tale of international soccer, but soccer is the most interesting part. I got caught up in the drama of finding Godwin and was thoroughly surprised with the twists and turns his story took. The other story line, about Mark and Lakesha’s business dealings, added background to the overall story, but fell well short of the soccer content in terms of interest, at least to me. I haven’t read the author’s previous book, Netherland; this was my first experience with him. I thought he did a terrific job of drawing out the intrigue of Godwin and the ups and downs of his story and I’ll certainly look out for more by him in the future. Recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon and Vintage for access to this e-ARC.