Read this after the announcement of the Booker Prize 2023 Longlist that just came out yesterday, and this was my first pick and it was one that I finished in one seating.

A story that focuses on grief of a family as a whole and how they had made it through and channeled their grief with sports - specifically squash - and its a novella that highlights sisterhood as a whole and how they came together during the death of their mother. Paired with a straightforward prose, is a story of the different mechanisms for grief , family and squash .

I find that this book was easy to read; but one that interlaced with a lot more than just the mechanics of squash. Firstly, writing-wise , its one of the books that has a beautiful prose but its one that is not hard to read. The story has its own flair to it that makes the story seemed alive in its own way. I love how it creates a story of a family that is grappling with loss and how each of them had grieved in their own ways. Its interesting to read how the sport was interlaced with the family mechanics in here; and the fact that its written from the POV of a 13 year old makes the story seemed more raw and heartbreaking.

I was not that much a fan of squash, but I feel that the author had made the sport in here somewhat parallel to the feelings of our main protagonist. Its how the sport had become a bridge to save the link between her father and their children, and what kept the family somewhat at bay with the loss of their mother. I fell into a deep-hole of squash techniques and seeing the sport through the lens of the characters makes it almost poetic in its own way. There is a subtlety in Maroo's writing that makes the story; albeit short, one that touches hearts in ways that you didn't expect it would. Its a voice of a teen trying to find a place in the world where she is still trying to grasp girlhood through the help of her sisters (who are not that much of an adult themselves).

A story that took me by surprise. Definitely one that I liked seeing it in the list of the booker prize and discovering a new author and story.