Selection Day

Starred review from November 7, 2016
With his brilliant, raw energy ricocheting off of every line, Booker winner Adiga (White Tiger) turns his wry wit and his scrutiny to the youth leagues of cricket in Mumbai, following the successes and failures of teenage brothers Radha Krishna and Manjunath Kumar, who have been both formed and broken by their visionary but abusive father, Mohan. Brought to Mumbai as children after their mother left, the boys have grown up in a “one-room brick shed, divided by a green curtain.” Ever since, they’ve spent every hour hoping and preparing for a different future, which they know depends on their ability to outshine all the other boys on the cricket field. To either help or hinder this process comes a cast of scouts, recruiters, and hangers-on, each of whom is etched with Adiga’s trademark clarity—they are as defined by their fate as they are resentful of it. “Revenge is the capitalism of the poor,” he writes, describing Mohan’s resolve to prove the potential of his sons, as well as their eventual attempts to escape him. But the claim also fuels the energy of the novel as a whole, unraveling the tremendous grit and fierce inner conflicts that come with the pursuit of revenge. Though Radha is known throughout Mumbai as the “best batsman” and Manju the “second best batsman,” this is shockingly upturned, a move from which no one ever quite recovers. Meanwhile, as Manju in particular comes of age, he wrestles with what the sport demands and what he’s willing to sacrifice in turn.

August 1, 2016

As with his Booker Prize-winning The White Tiger, Adiga shows us caste-ridden contemporary India but focuses on the heavy burdens parents can place on children and the compelling complexity of sibling relationships. Two brothers in a Mumbai slum feel the weight of their cricket-obsessed father's expectation that they triumph in the game, with 14-year-old Manju looking up to his more talented older brother, Radha. After meeting Radha's rival, a privileged and gracefully confident Muslim boy, Manju must reconsider his sense of himself and the world.

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