Western Lane
Shortlisted For The Booker Prize
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3.5 • 18 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
'A beautiful and evocative novel about grief, about growing up, about losing and winning. The people and places in this book will stay with me for a long time.' – Sally Rooney, author of Normal People
A Times Best Paperback of the Year
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction
Longlisted for the William Hill Award
A BBC Arts & The Reading Agency's Big Sporting Read selection
Selected by Dua Lipa as one of Service95's 'Books of the Year'
A deeply moving novel about grief, sisterhood and a teenage girl's struggle to transcend herself.
Eleven-year-old Gopi has been playing squash since she was old enough to hold a racket. When her mother dies, her father enlists her in a quietly brutal training regimen, and the game becomes her world. Slowly, she grows apart from her sisters. Her life is reduced to the sport, guided by its rhythms: the serve, the volley, the drive, the shot and its echo.
But on the court, she is not alone. She is with her pa. She is with Ged, a thirteen-year-old boy with his own formidable talent. She is with the players who have come before her. She is in awe.
An unforgettable coming-of-age story, Chetna Maroo’s Western Lane is an exploration of the closeness of sisterhood, the immigrant experience, and the collective overcoming of grief.
A 'Book of the Year' in The Economist, The Independent, The Week, The New York Times and The Guardian
'With this gorgeous debut, Maroo blows most of the competition off the court.' – The Times
'Stunning . . . Spare, tender, brilliantly achieved' – The Guardian
Customer Reviews
Alone or Together
Incredibly well written story of the youngest sister of three, who remain with their father after mothers death.She is the narrator and holds a special place for her father, as she resembles her mother, becomes successful in the sport he loves and finally also obeys his idea to live with her aunt and uncle. For this, she has to leave her sisters and her friend/first love.
There is intense feeling in the story, imagination, detailed observation.Most of all, the relationships, often represented in gestures of facial expressions only, are perfectly put.
I loved the book and will re-read it frequently, it is well placed on the Booker long-list.