Western Lane by Chetna Maroo audiobook review – an agile coming-of-age debut

Maya Saroya narrates the Booker-shortlisted story of how a family channels its grief on the squash court and produces a potential champion

After 11-year-old Gopi’s mother dies unexpectedly, she and her older sisters Mona and Khush channel their grief at the local sports centre where their father, known as Pa, teaches them to play squash. “I& want you to become interested in something you can do your whole life,” he tells his children.

Set on the outskirts of London in the late 1980s, this Booker-nominated debut novel from Chetna Maroo begins& a few days after the funeral, when Pa and his daughters are visiting extended family to mark the end of& the& mourning period. Their aunt Ranjan frets that the girls are going “wild” and suggests she take one of them off Pa’s hands – “Three is too many,” she tells him. Gopi waits for him to decline the offer but he doesn’t answer. This is typical of Pa, who carries his grief silently, leaving his children confused and looking for clues as to what the future holds.