The Match

Romesh Gunesekera

Gunesekera's novel explores an exile's relationship with his colonial inheritance, as he searches the past for a sense of identity and belonging, while regretting the loss of an imagined past paradise. Although the main thread running through the story is the love of cricket, you will not need to share the writer's passion to enjoy this novel and relate to his characters.

Extract

Mikey was growing fast. Sunny could sense it. Something frighteningly adult in the way he flinched. The monologue in his head had started. That moment when the world and you are no longer one, but you are in one place and the world is out there, a world on which you keep a running commentary. Animals don't do it. Infants don't do it. It comes when you become aware that the commentary is yours and you are talking to yourself. Few manage to break the skin that forms and return to childhood.

Parallels