Selection Day by Aravind Adiga

This is a tale that revolves around class, poverty, opportunities and the use of athletics to escape to a better life.  The story is from Mumbai, but if race were added in, it could have been in the United States.
The book is about two young boys from Mumbai whose father raises them to be the very best cricket players in the world.  You know where that is going.  They are both his hope of sports glory, which eluded him, and getting out of poverty.
Cricket is, of course, a wonderful way of writing about shattered dreams – both personal and national. As such, it isn’t necessary to know the game to appreciate this finely told, often moving and intelligent novel. Cricket here represents what is loved in India, and yet is being corrupted by the changes within the nation.  The nastiness of cricket isn’t only to do with money and corruption. The book takes in class, religion and sexuality – all issues that disrupt the dream of a sport that cares for nothing but talent and temperament. The relationship of the two brothers is significant but eventually becomes secondary to the one between the younger boy, Manju, and Javed, a good-looking Muslim from an affluent family who chooses to walk away from cricket and wants Manju to follow him. Manju’s attraction to Javed, and his awareness of the barriers between them, is subtly and often surprisingly explored.  In the end we do not know if Manju loves cricket or not, but we do know that it has made him.