Synopsis
'Novel of the year was Aravind Adiga’s Selection Day . . . Cricket never fails to bring out the best in novelists . . . and this is a fine study of the very different fates of two Indian boys blessed with supreme talent. Everything (the dialogue, psychological analysis, social portrayal) is done in a wonderful pacy narrative style.’ – Declan Kiberd, The Irish Times ‘Books of the Year’
From the Booker Prize winning author of The White Tiger
'The most exciting novelist writing in English today' – A. N. Wilson
Manjunath Kumar is fourteen. He knows he is good at cricket – if not as good as his elder brother Radha. He knows that he fears and resents his domineering and cricket-obsessed father, admires his brilliantly talented sibling and is fascinated by the world of CSI and by curious and interesting scientific facts. But there are many things, about himself and about the world, that he doesn't know . . . Sometimes it seems as though everyone around him has a clear idea of who Manju should be, except Manju himself.
When Manju begins to get to know Radha's great rival, a boy as privileged and confident as Manju is not, everything in Manju's world begins to change and he is faced with decisions that will challenge both his sense of self and of the world around him . . .
Details
Reviews
“[A] finely told, often moving, and intelligent novel . . . Adiga's novel takes in class, religion and sexuality - all issues that disrupt the dream of a sport that cares for nothing but talent and temperament. Because Adiga is a novelist, and one who has grown in his art since his Booker prizewinning debut, The White Tiger, he knows how to talk about all these matters through his characters and their compelling stories.”Kamila Shamsie, Guardian
“Selection Day is a captivating and sensitive coming-of-age story . . . Adiga's characters are getting more complex with each book, and this complexity makes his indictment of the contemporary world all the more urgent and convincing.”Hirsh Sawhney, TLS
“Aravind Adiga’s enthrallingSelection Day studies, with universalizing insight, two brothers from Mumbai consecrated to cricket at psychic cost”Paul Binding, Times Literary Supplement
“I also enjoyed and admired Aravind Adiga’s funny and touching Selection Day in which cricketing prodigies in Mumbai face googlies from both bowlers and life”Peter Parker, Spectator
