Pressure can either create diamonds or burst pipes.
Patricia Lukastic is a young Argentinean tennis player; one of the most promising tennis players in the world. Coached by her father Elian, Patricia began winning local tournaments, and then quickly went on to win at huge international competitions like the Australian Open. She ascended quickly in rankings, facing powerhouse star players like Monica Seles and Lindsay Davenport. She was unstoppable.
Elian, a man devoted to his daughter since Patricia’s mother left them, is a passionate and frustrated tennis and chess player. He works day in and day out to pave the way for his daughter’s tennis career. It is his last chance to give meaning to his life. His goal is to put his daughter in the history of the sport, and push her to be number one, in order to fuel his own obsessions, yearnings and passions.
Trips, hotels, tennis courts, tournaments, training sessions, press conferences… Patricia has both a very public yet very lonely life, in which there is room for only two people: her and her father. But soon this intimate relationship becomes exhausting. And the pressure and manipulation by companies and organizations that only see Patricia as a cash cow, denaturalizing her, ultimately suffocate her. Patricia begins to invent mental strategies and tactics to survive the loneliness by relying on her fierce competitive instinct. But when she turns 21, at the peak of her career, she decides to retire from the sport. She claims it’s because of a persistent injury and quickly disappears forever. At this point, Patricia decides to take charge of her life, putting herself and her mental health as a priority- above money, above fame and, most importantly, above her own father. Not much is known about her in the following years, that is until a writer is summoned by the former athlete herself to tell the story of her life and that of her father.
RELEVANT DATA: The novel What Happened to Patricia Lukastic? (¿Qué se sabe de Patricia Lukastic?) was the winner of the prestigious Clarín Award. The story unveils the harsh and dark side of being a professional athlete, a very real and hot topic that resembles recent statements made by American gymnast Simone Biles. Considered the greatest gymnast in history, she put spotlight on the mental health of athletes after withdrawing from several competitions at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Its author, Manuel Soriano, has also been award with the National Narrators of the Banda Oriental Award and the Fondo Concursable Award from the Ministry of Culture.
What the critics have said:
“A novel that is capable of revealing a world that many of us see, but few of us actually know: the complicated universe behind the tennis courts.” Leonardo Padura.
“The dynamic and confident prose of this novel turns tennis into literature, and the reader watches the plot come and go from one side of the court to the other with wonder and seduction.” Sergio Ramírez.
“Beyond the sport, the novel reveals a human drama: the dark web of isolation, pressure and manipulation to which the protagonist has been subjected since her childhood.” Sylvia Iparraguirre.
AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: In development for a TV Series format.
LANGUAGES AVAILABLE: Spanish, French.
