Selection Day is that one day in the year when aspiring young cricketers (and their parents - who are really the aspirational ones) show off their cricketing chops to a bunch of judges who have sole power over who will be Mumbai's next great cricketing stars, with fame, fortune and cricket glory just around the corner.

It is a complete understatement that India is mad for cricket. In recent years the rise of the IPL has opened wide the dreaming skies for parents, agents, coaches as they desperately work their young charges on the cricket treadmill. The world is awash with stories of parents obsessed with turning their children into sports stars, musicians, chess players, A++ geniuses. And what good really does it do them. So this novel is a morality tale really, on what can go wrong when a parent's reason for being is having his child make the big time. There is, of course, nothing wrong with wanting to better oneself, and improve one's standard of living. But at what cost?

In this novel, it is further complicated by the father having not one child, but two, 16 year old Radha and 14 year old Manjunath. The three of them live in Mumbai slum, this being the extra motivation for the father to have his boys shine. All energies are focused on the hard working and diligent older boy, but it is actually the younger boy who has the real talent, and who has to be made to see that he is really quite exceptional. So the basic plot of child/parent/talent, is stretched more by the addition of sibling rivalry. During the course of the novel, Manju is also tormented by his growing attraction to another young cricketer, a young wealthy and privileged Muslim called Javed. Javed is a bit like Manju's moral compass, seeing the corrupt and exploitative business of cricket for what it really is, trying to appeal to Manju's sensibilities to get him out of it. But will he?

Modern day India is a great setting for this novel, aside from the author's intimate knowledge of the place, we are also fully aware of how corruption is part and parcel of daily life in Indian society, how exploitation keeps the wheels going, how little control millions and millions of people have over their lives.

Great writing, and characters including the two secondary characters of the agent/promotor and the coach, the latter also disillusioned, defeated, but still standing in the vortex. There is a great story here, but for me it just did not hit the spot. The story ended up not really going anywhere. By the end, Manju is still conflicted over his relationship with Javed, Radha has self destructed, and cricket is somewhere far, far away. It is nothing to do with the cricket, it could easily be tennis, or cycling, or piano playing or any of these other parent obsessed activities that make the child simply a commodity to the parent and hangers on. But for me, the original gritty story lost its way.

Urgh another book in which a gay character ends up unhappy & alone and in this case, he metaphorically castrates himself by choosing cricket over love for fear of being called gay. It's little wonder I stopped reading this type of fiction many years ago. Even in 2016 gay men are depicted as dysfunctional and alone.

Aravind Adiga has created a view of contemporary India through the lens of cricket, a much-loved sport. Soccer may be overtaking cricket in popularity, but Mohan Kumar wants his sons Radha and Manju to rise to the top in this very British sport. The boys have a coach called Tommy Sir and a sponsor, Anand Mehta. Adiga has once again created a picture of the striving that goes on with parents who push their children to achieve stardom, riches, and comfortable life. Only a very few can make it out of the villages or the Mumbai slums, and when a father sees a gift as Mohan does, he exploits it for all it is worth.

This novel has to work better for people who like and understand cricket. I enjoyed it for the lives of the boys and watching them grow and realize exactly what they wanted from the cards they were dealt in a life of poverty and fear.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Scribner.

Boring. Did not get into it.

I enjoyed this novel about two brothers and their different experiences told through their common involvement in cricket. But I always read Arvin Adiga's books with the hope that he will produce another "White Tiger", and in that respect I am usually slightly disappointed.

Terrible. I don't think I have ever given up on a book completely, but this was the one. I had such high hopes when it was picked for book club. I disliked the characters and especially how the book flowed or not as the case may be. I don't know if I was supposed to feel any empathy for the two boys but I just couldn't bring myself too, they were horrible children. I wasn't even particularly bothered by the cricket but, I think the only thing worse than watching cricket would be having to finish reading this book.

– In this city we throw boys out of the women's compartment of the train when they are seven, and tell them, to the men's compartment. Push and survive. In sport there is not always a difference between a boy and a man. –

– Manju had a horrible premonition about intimacy: it could be this simple, this could be how something starts - just because he asks you twice to tell him your story. – 

– 'What are your observations on the difference between India and England in terms of cricket?'
'For them, it is just a game.'

– This was the only place he had ever felt entirely safe: his mother's childhood. – 

– For this too, is hell: knowing you are not - and can never be – as good as you want to be. –

– The helmet was waiting - of all the masks you will have to choose from, it asked, why not take me as your own? –

– A son's true opinion of his parents is written on the back of his teeth. – 

You think is a book about an overbearing dad, two boys growing up and cricket, but then it throws you a curve ball and then it is about growing up as a boy with a secret. Good writing at times but not much character development. How ever since I have never watch cricket I am more interested in the game.