Olympic Fiction: Reading for Champions

There are  many volumes about the history of the Olympic Games and lots of biographies of Olympians.  However, I enjoy reading fiction about the Olympics - Winter Games or Summer Games, or stories which have the Olympics as a central element. Hopefully the following titles will get your adrenaline pumping for the Sochi games. I recently led a book discussion on the first title, Gold, which is a riveting and suspenseful story from start to finish of athletic ambition, Olympic glory, sacrifice, and the mightily tedious sport of track cycling.

Gold by Chris Cleave (07/2012)
This is a story about three track cyclists whose lives are intertwined and complicated by the others as each of them races and competes - with London as the ultimate goal. The Olympics are always part of the conversation for them, even as their personal lives are upended and tumultuous. But beyond that, Cleave really gets inside the head of these elite athletes, what it's like to be on the verge of over training and really hurting yourself, and the kind of mentality it takes to compete at that level and what it does to you emotionally.

Another new book, Flight from Berlin by David John (07/2012)
This novel reaches back to the 1936 Berlin Olympics and sets up a plot that's full of intrigue and mystery set against the backdrop of Hitler's Games. With Jesse Owens as a central figure in those games, this one promises to deliver plenty of Summer Olympic detail with mystery and history thrown in.

A Game of Lies by Rebecca Cantrell (2011)
Set in 1936, Cantrell's well-paced third mystery featuring German crime reporter Hannah Vogel (after 2010's disappointing A Night of Long Knives) returns to the high level of her debut, 2009's A Trace of Smoke. Sought by the Gestapo for kidnapping the son of a high-ranking Nazi official, Vogel has assumed the alias of Adelheid Zinsli, a Swiss reporter, to cover the Olympic Games while spying for the British. Vogel arranges to meet with her old mentor, Peter Weill, at the Berlin Olympic Stadium, but right after Weill tells her that he needs to get some information out of the country, he keels over. While the death appears to be the result of a heart attack, Vogel believes that poison was responsible. Her search for the truth, aided by an SS officer of uncertain trustworthiness, leads her to a deadly secret. While not in Philip Kerr's league, Cantrell does a fine job evoking the period.

The Games by Ted Kosmatka (2012)
In a future where genetically engineered monsters represent competing nations during the Games, U.S. Games Committee head Dr. Silas Williams worries when the computer-designed U.S. gladiator shows signs of hyper-intelligence and violent tendencies that threaten more than athletic opponents.

Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron (2012)
Rwandan runner Jean Patrick Nkuba dreams of winning an Olympic gold medal and uniting his ethnically divided country, only to be driven from everyone he loves when the violence starts, after which he must find a way back to a better life.

Again to Carthage by John L. Parker Jr. (2004)
After several personal tragedies, Quenton Cassidy decides to return to competitive running and makes one last attempt to qualify for the Olympic team.

Swimming by Nicola Keegan (2009)
Haunted by an agoraphobic mother, a lost father, and a drug-addled sister, Philomena, reluctantly known as Pip, transforms her suffering and rage into beauty, grace, and purity in the swimming lane as she rises to the Olympic level.

Enjoy the excitement of these titles from the comfort of your easy chair and read like a champion!