Actually, to be fair, I still don't give a shit about football. But I care that it mattered to this story, enough to read the football scenes carefully instead of skipping them. Enough to have a visceral emotional reaction to them. Because good god, this is a gut punch of a book. It brought tears to my eyes, to the point where I had to look away to compose myself. I honestly can't remember when a book last did that to me. MyHome.ie (Opens in new window) • Top 1000 • The Gloss (Opens in new window) • Recruit Ireland (Opens in new window) • Irish Times Training (Opens in new window)

Panenka" delves into the lives of the characters offering insightful commentary about grief, regret, relationships, love, loss, and more. I found myself feeling sad that the book was coming to an end. a b "The cult of the Panenka penalty". FIFA.com. 25 June 2012. Archived from the original on 2 July 2012 . Retrieved 3 July 2012. Il rigore di Panenka" (in Italian). Storie di Calcio. Archived from the original on 21 May 2016 . Retrieved 9 May 2016. I saw myself as an entertainer and I saw this penalty as a reflection of my personality. I wanted to give the fans something new to see, to create something that would get them talking." Chile 0-0 Argentina (4-1 pens): Hosts claim first Copa America title with shoot-out victory". Sky Sports. 4 July 2015. Archived from the original on 4 July 2015 . Retrieved 4 July 2015.Perth Glory A-League Grand Final offside controversy". The West Australian. 19 May 2019. Archived from the original on 3 June 2019 . Retrieved 3 June 2019. Panenka is first and foremost a book about people. It is a book that draws the reader into the world of the characters with an ease and a flow that I have now come to expect from Rónán Hession. Contemplative and expressive, Panenka is quite simply a joy to read, and reread again. A novel with great depth exploring human fragility and vulnerability, Panenka is another extraordinary read from an extraordinary writer. Panenka has to face a few realities about his own life, his future and his relationships, both past and present. Panenka enjoys having them around, but he's still mysterious, they don't even know what he does for a living. I mean, give me a break. I understand talking about feelings and past hurts is hard. But talking about one's job should be easy peasy. So I didn't buy the premise, the behaviours and their justifications, which made it difficult for me to care. Andrea Pirlo explains THAT Panenka penalty which bamboozled Joe Hart at Euro 2012". The Mirror. 15 April 2014. Archived from the original on 14 January 2018 . Retrieved 4 April 2018.

of the best and worst Panenkas ever". Planet Football. 3 June 2020. Archived from the original on 31 December 2017 . Retrieved 23 September 2020.Now – at the age of 50 – he has partly reconciled with his separated daughter Marie-Therese (a supermarket supervisor, separated from a husband she has grown apart from, and whose main confidant is a childhood friend). She and Panenka’s 7-year old grandson Arthur live with him – albeit his internal life is still closed off from them. The care that Hession takes in this book is evident firstly in the beautifully rounded cast of characters. Everyone gets their turn; every character is lavished with attention. We are given little insights into their situation, their feelings, their true selves that shine a spotlight on even the most minor characters. It is a kind of generosity of spirit from the author, it seems to me, and it makes the book teem with life. The second type of care that is obvious in this book is the attention Hession pays to language. I know Ronan Hession is an avid reader of translated fiction; I suspect he is also a linguist, for he has clearly has an utter delight and amusement in language, a love of words, and of turning them over to examine their hidden sides, and it makes reading his prose a joy. In terms of the story, this careful approach to language manifests itself most affectingly when Esther and Panenka converse. Esther is a wonderful character: I loved her deeply, and the way she talks to Panenka and draws him out made me think, on more than one occasion, that if we all spoke to each other like that, life would be better. Words matter, and when we choose them as carefully as Esther does (with Hession at the helm), we can change lives. Life as a series of vignettes alluding to no real development, until you can sit and reflect, is an amazing way of living. His name was Joseph, but for years they had called him Panenka, a name that was his sadness and his story.”

Panenka" is one of those novels that I think everyone will be able to relate to in some way; the characters are ordinary people with the same everyday concerns as everyone else. This novel is centered around the life of the main character, Joseph, an ex-footballer, who has become known as Panenka after an event that happened years before but which has followed him and taunted him ever since. When we meet Panenka we find out that he has a secret that he has kept from his family, and as the novel progresses it becomes harder for him to keep it. We learn all about his life and meet his friends, his daughter and grandson, as well as his new romantic interest. The story is told well, in an introspective way that enables the reader to understand what each of the characters is thinking and feeling. All the players in this story are expertly crafted and could be real people. This author understands human nature and can bring characters to life in such a way that you begin to believe in them and sympathise with them. It contains many snippets of wisdom that make you stop and think; the hallmark of a classic book. When Panenka finds at the book’s opening that his blinding headaches (which he calls the iron mask) are harbingers of a much more serious issue he resolves not to burden his family with the details (not least as Marie-Therese is talking about , or his friends (a small and eccentric group he meets at a nearby bar) or a 40 something hairdresser with who he forges a burgeoning relationship built around mutual identification in a shared sense of past disillusionment. Joseph, or Panenka as he is known, has spent over 20 years living with the results of one mistake made in the football game that caused him to be an exile in his town and a stranger in his family. Now aged 50, Panenka lives with his daughter and grandson, and tries to build a life, but all he has worked for threatens to come tumbling down when he begins to have crippling headaches, which he refers to as his “Iron Mask”. If, like me, you have absolutely no knowledge of football, Rónán Hession provides the reader with a definition of the term Panenka at the very beginning of the book –Many have tried to emulate this down the years - some with success, but when a Panenka goes wrong it goes very wrong. Notably in May 2021 when the great Sergio Aguero had the chance to put his team 2-0 up and likely clinch the Premier League title for Manchester City: Panenka has spent 25 years living with his disastrous mistakes and begins to rebuild an improvised family life with his estranged daughter and her seven year old son. Faced with losing everything, he meets Esther, and together, they find resonance in each