Apr 14, 2016

SUDDEN DEATH - Álvaro Enrigue

A brutal tennis match in Rome. Two formidable opponents: the wild Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and the loutish Spanish poet Francisco de Quevedo. In England, Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII execute Anne Boleyn, and her executioner transforms her legendary locks into the most sought-after tennis balls of the time. Across the ocean in Mexico, the last Aztec emperors play their own games.

Photographed by Mark Vessey, the cover shows Real Tennis balls in their unfinished state before the felt is sewn round them. The balls were kindly supplied by The Queen’s Club, London, who showed us round the Real Tennis courts and explained the intricacies of this historic game. They also showed us how the balls are made.  

The title type was hand-drawn by the designer based on sixteenth-century script.

Sudden Death is published by Harvill Secker

About