A Life Too Short

One of the most remarkable sports books ever written… A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke… stands as the definite work on mental illness in football

Sam Wallace, Daily Telegraph

Incredible… It’s a stunning, fascinating and ultimately heartbreaking piece of work that has done so much to further the understanding between mental illness and sport. It is also a reminder that, for all the status and all the luxury which come with being a professional footballer, those lucky enough to make a career from the game are still human beings, too

Tom Hopkinson, People

An intensely moving book that transcends football

Raphael Honigstein, Guardian

Deeply affecting

Ian Hawkey, Sunday Times

A Life Too Short is a sports biography about as much as BS Johnson's classic The Unfortunates is a sports novel. Both are books about grief. But football runs through the heart of Enke's story and this book belongs to the first rank of publications on the game of minds and souls that exists behind the beautiful game that is seen on the field. It is both a fitting tribute to a lost friend but it is also a salutary warning to the great football clubs of the world

Keith Duggan, Irish Times

A masterpiece… I have read few other books, fiction or non-fiction that is so startlingly sensitive, honest and sincere

Bundesligafanatic.com

A tragic book, but a brilliant one. Reng's is one of the best sports books to have been published in years

Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung

Deeply affecting

Matt Dickinson, The Times

Enke had often talked to his friend Reng, a journalist-cum-novelist, about writing a book together. Now Reng has done it alone, beautifully...this is the mature work of a writer who has gone far beyond sensationalism. It allows you to turn back and read football differently

New Statesman

Enlightening and visceral...An indispensable insight into a man and an illness, Reng's book is a sobering yet brilliant account and may yet restore faith for the disenchanted man in the street

Sabotage Times

It should be on every British football fan's reading list

Ben East, Metro

It’s pitched perfectly – intensely moving without becoming overly emotional or morbid

Sharon Wheeler, Times Higher Education

Moving...after reading it, I felt I not only understood depression a little better but also determined never again to believe the myth of the sporting superman, impervious to criticism or pressure

Sarah Crompton, Daily Telegraph

This is a powerful book which transcends football.

Sport Magazine