How a Brazilian footballer put Tolstoy back on top of the book charts | OneFootball

Gustavo Scarpa’s YouTube review of Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich sent the novella to the top of Brazil’s book charts, and Atlético Mineiro fans have begun meeting to discuss literature.

According to L'Équipe, the 32-year-old midfielder did not expect Russian literature to resonate, yet days after his video the title led Amazon’s Brazilian book sales.

Google searches in Brazil for the work spiked from 6 September, three days after his upload, which has since drawn 725,000 views.

His reading habit began in 2018 with a Steve Jobs biography from an aunt, then a wager with Palmeiras staffer Pedro Jatene to gift a book whenever he was decisive. The first was Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and he soon discussed the lot on Instagram.

He launched Canal do Scarpinha in 2021 to share skateboarding, chess and guitar. This year he added short reading reviews and says he loves probing ideas from books.

Inspired by their No 10, supporters formed Galeitura, mixing Galo, Portuguese for cockerel and Atlético’s mascot, with leitura, reading. The community has 113,000 Instagram followers, led by founder Carolina Marques, 22, with Brendon, Lais, Luís, Júlia, Diego and Dante, and it quickly partnered with Instituto Galo, an NGO working alongside Atlético.

Recently the stadium forecourt became a free book fair where fans swapped titles or donated them for institutions in need. An 11-year-old named Lenin gave a striking speech about how a book can shape a life.

Scarpa has received messages from artists, musicians and supporters and hopes many will make reading a habit. Rival Cruzeiro followers have now launched their own club.

Source: L'Équipe

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”