Sitting Courtside With Matthew Salesses

The Sense of Wonder, Salesses’ trenchant and kinetic fourth novel, asks us to root for two unforgettable protagonists. First, we meet New York Knicks player Won Lee, an underappreciated point guard living in the shadow of Powerball!, the team’s star player. When Won steps into the spotlight after Powerball! is sidelined with an injury, he leads the team to a stunning victory streak, punningly christened “the Wonder” by the media. If it sounds a lot like the “Linsanity” that exploded around Knicks star Jeremy Lin in 2012, there’s a reason for that—Salesses, a lifelong basketball obsessive, was inspired by the phenomenon.