June 9, 2026 · Tobias Carroll

Is This the Strangest Soccer Novel Ever Written? Tobias Carroll on Carlos Labbé's The Murmuration

What Labbé conveys through his prose here is the ways that soccer, at this highest of levels, can create a kind of collective experience for both players and spectators. This narrative voice has a personality, which often takes the form of vitriol directed at the infamous Peruvian-born official Yamasaki Maldonado.