A story of love, loss and life of a young man grappling with his identity in the harsh world of professional sports.
Alec Haudepin is a quietly driven and gifted young athlete who’s spent most of his youth on the rugby field nurturing his life-long dream of playing for the All Blacks. His rise to sporting prominence belies his parallel journey of personal conflict, as he grapples with his sexuality in his own private world.
As Alec strives to remain in contention for the coveted black jersey, an appealling young stranger, with secrets of his own, moves into his apartment building.
This sets in motion a chain of dramatic events in which Alec’s yearning to explore his repressed feelings views with his need to be accepted by a rugby community that is yet to contend with what he represents.
Exploring the changing social dynamic with beguiling subtlety, Broken Play is a fictional work of identity and longing, violence and redemption, and is absorbing and evocative story of reluctant pioneer in one of the most hallowed domains in New Zealand society.
NZ Booklovers has a copy to giveaway.