A Brilliant Coming-of-Death Story

Sporting events have always existed, and for many of us they are nothing more than fleeting entertainment. But the high atmosphere of athletic greatness — the absurd talent of a single player — can possess a serious fan forever. Even if it’s an obsession with an obscure bowler who offered nothing more than an uncanny ability to hurl a cricket ball with such wizardry that his perfectly calibrated hang times made the ball appear to move slower than it really was. Or his nearly impossible (and illegal) double bounce ball that not only leaps twice but changes direction each time. These are the seemingly superhuman feats that can haunt a fan throughout his lifetime, as is the case of the prematurely aging and alcohol-soiled sportswriter W.G. Karunasena at the center of Shehan’s Karunatilaka’s rambunctious and big-hearted tragicomic novel The Legend of Pradeep Mathew.