In Belo Horizonte, Gustavo Scarpa has found an unusual way to move the conversation beyond football. The Atlético Mineiro midfielder’s recommendation of Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich has sent the Russian classic to the top of Amazon Brazil’s sales rankings, 140 years after it was first published.
A literary surge from an Atlético Mineiro midfielder
Scarpa, whose public interests in reading and chess have long set him apart from the usual football social-media routine, discussed the novella in a video on his YouTube channel, Scarpinha. He outlined its story and offered his own interpretation of the work.
- The YouTube review has reached 700,000 views.
- An Instagram excerpt has been watched by a further one million people.
- Google searches for the book have tripled.
- The Death of Ivan Ilyich subsequently became Amazon Brazil’s best-selling title.
A habit built beyond the pitch
The former Nottingham Forest player has spoken about literature online since 2019, while also streaming chess matches and sharing his enthusiasm for the game. His recommendations have increasingly drawn an audience, with Tolstoy’s short novel now providing the clearest example of their reach.
For Scarpa, the response is the latest sign that a footballer’s following can be directed towards subjects far removed from training grounds, transfers and match nights. In Brazil, his review has made a 19th-century Russian work an unlikely contemporary bestseller.
