Description
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Kate and Zoe are friends but also ardent rivals - athletes at the top of their game, fighting to compete in the world's greatest sporting contest. Each scarred by tragedy, and each with a great deal to lose, they must choose between family and glory and ask themselves: what will I sacrifice?
Richard Madeley review
Chris Cleave sat down to write Gold a year before the 2012 London Olympics. He researched it for many months before that.
During his research, Cleave tried to simulate some of what the would-be Olympic cyclists do. He cycled and trained with them, on the road and in the Velodrome.
With every turn of the pedals I was more and more in awe of the champions, he says. There are barriers of physical and emotional pain which they can push through and I cannot. They are extremely brave people, and I feel it is important to record some of their real achievements here.?
He has done so, in a thrilling and quite literally heart-pounding story. The drive to succeed demands many sacrifices, with no guarantees at the end of them. The single-mindedness required to qualify for an Olympic games, let alone stand on the winners? podium, is almost superhuman.
You'll never look at an Olympic champion in quite the same way again.
Judy Finnigan review
Kate and Zoe are friends. They are also rivals. Both are world-class racing cyclists, who have devoted years of training and dedication to their sport. Both are potentially gold medal winners.
But only one of them falls pregnant.
p class="publisherdescriptiontext"> Gold is a fascinating examination of how real life intersects with a champion's life; especially a woman champion's life.Kate has been preparing for Olympic glory for eighteen years. Since she was six, she dreamed of winning gold. Her training partner is Zoe, and as the pair of them approach the Athens Olympics of 2008, it is Kate who has the edge. She has beaten her friend in almost every major competition.
And then Sophie arrives. Sophie, the result of Kate's slowly developing pregnancy that will rule her out of the biggest game of them all. Sophie, whose father is one of the fastest five male cyclists in the world. Sophie, who by the time the London Olympics are approaching, has been diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of leukaemia.
This is the backdrop against which Chris Cleave's muscular, dynamic tale unfolds. It is about passion and obsession and jealousy and commitment and shines a revealing light into the usually enclosed, shrouded world of the Olympians.
The pace of the book is fast and furious, and emotions and adrenalin levels run high throughout. We guarantee that when you reach the final page, you'll cross the finishing line thoroughly out of breath.
About the Author
More Details
- Contributor: Chris Cleave
- Imprint: Sceptre
- ISBN13: 9780340963456
- Number of Pages: 448
- Packaged Dimensions: 131x197x28mm
- Packaged Weight: 304
- Format: Paperback
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
- Release Date: 2013-01-03
- Binding: Paperback / softback
- Biography: Chris Cleave is a New York Times #1 bestselling novelist whose books are published in forty countries. His debut novel INCENDIARY won the Somerset Maugham Award, among others. His second, the Costa-shortlisted THE OTHER HAND, was a global bestseller and sat in the New York Times Top Ten for over a year (under the US title, Little Bee). Both books were shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prizes. He lives in Kingston-upon-Thames with his wife and three children, and welcomes readers at facebook.com/ChrisCleaveBooks, www.chriscleave.com and twitter.com/chriscleave.
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