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.
Western Lane is a short novel that uses the pretext of competitive sports to touch upon matters of grief and identity.
It was a beautiful and haunting read, following a child poised to become a squash champion after the death of her mother; her father, obsessed with squash, and herself go all-in on the sport as a way to fight off the vacuity of life without her.
The novella’s length is perfect for such a short and simple story, told by a child, leaving us to deduce what’s happening from her point of view.
Whether you like sports or stories of broken families, you might enjoy this read.