Available Formats
Paperback
Published: 5th June 2024
Hardback
Published: 2nd October 2024
Paperback
Published: 30th September 2025
Godwin
By (Author) Joseph ONeill
HarperCollins Publishers
Fourth Estate Ltd
30th September 2025
5th June 2025
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Contemporary lifestyle fiction
Humorous fiction
Narrative theme: Identity / belonging
Narrative theme: Social issues
Paperback
288
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 18mm
270g
A fantastic novel, brilliantly crafted MARCUS DU SAUTOY
'Enthralling not to be missed' GUARDIAN
A meticulously constructed marvel' WASHINGTON POST
'I wish there were more books like this' ELIF BATUMAN
The return of Joseph ONeill, with a story on the scale of the international phenomenon Netherland: the odyssey of two brothers crossing the world in search of an African football prodigy who might change their fortunes.
Mark Wolfe, a brilliant if self-thwarting technical writer, lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Sushila, and their toddler daughter. His half-brother Geoff, born and raised in the UK, is a desperate young football agent. He pulls Mark across the ocean into a scheme to track down an elusive prospect known only as Godwin an African teenager Geoff believes could be the next Messi.
Narrated in turn by Mark and his work colleague Lakesha Williams, the novel is both a tale of family and migration, and an international adventure story that implicates the brothers in the beauty and ugliness of football, the perils and promises of international business, and the dark history of transatlantic money-making.
As only he can do, Joseph O'Neill investigates the legacy of colonialism in the context of family love, global capitalism, and the dreaming individual.
'Among the best novels Ive read in a long time' BILL BUFORD
Delightful, funny rapidly told in masterful prose' FINANCIAL TIMES
'Moving enjoyable' THE TIMES
'This has all the velocity and swerve of an unstoppable free kick' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Joseph ONeill's novel Netherland was longlisted for the 2008 Booker Prize
Joseph ONeill is an Irish barrister living in New York. He is the author of two other novels, Netherland, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and This is the Life, and a memoir, Blood-Dark Track.