{"product_id":"underspin-isbn-9781662603266","title":"Underspin","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"E. Y. Zhao's \u003ci\u003eUnderspin\u003c\/i\u003e is an eruption of a debut. This novel displays a wondrous ability that renders both the central sport and lives that weave around it with meticulous precision and tremendous heart. The beauty of sport, the spirit of desire and the sacrifice required for greatness are all captured here in this stunner.\" —Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of\u003ci\u003e Chain-Gang All-Stars\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eStay True\u003c\/i\u003e meets \u003ci\u003eHeadshot\u003c\/i\u003e in this intimate, bruising coming-of-age novel about the short and tumultuous life of a charismatic and enigmatic table tennis prodigy, as seen through the eyes of those pulled into his orbit.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRyan Lo begins playing table tennis at age eight, under the tutelage of his brilliant but ruthless coach Kristian, who sees talent in him that might be nurtured into greatness. Throughout an adolescence circumscribed by Kristian's demanding behavior, Ryan forms jealousy-fueled and mutually adoring friendships with his teammates and competitors, falls in love with fellow table tennis star Anabel Yu, and above all, wins championships. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy twenty-one, Ryan ascends all the way to the German Bundesliga, the highest echelon of international table tennis, just as he was supposed to, but he doesn't stay there. It is clear to all that Ryan Lo was meant to be the greatest in the world. Instead, he abandons competition and is dead before his twenty-fifth birthday. What happened? \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn crisp, evocative prose, \u003ci\u003eUnderspin\u003c\/i\u003e masterfully delves beneath the relentless pressure that forges a champion, considering adolescence, estrangement, and the great injustices committed within our closest relationships. A love letter to an underdog sports circuit and a tender exploration of love, loss and abuse, \u003ci\u003eUnderspin \u003c\/i\u003eis a bildungsroman and literary puzzle for readers of Rita Bullwinkel, Hua Hsu, Susan Choi, and Brandon Taylor.\"Kaleidoscopic and wildly inventive, E.Y. Zhao’s debut \u003ci\u003eUnderspin\u003c\/i\u003e is the sort of constantly shifting novel that keeps you on your toes and commands attention through its winding, beautiful prose.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eOur Culture\u003c\/i\u003e, \"The Best Books of 2025\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Like \u003ci\u003eChallengers\u003c\/i\u003e did to tennis last year, \u003ci\u003eUnderspin\u003c\/i\u003e might do for table tennis. Zhao’s debut is wildly ambitious and searingly brilliant, jolting the reader with devastation, nostalgia, embarrassment, prestige, and sex—all in a completely unexpected field. The table is a battlefield, the players guns, the ball a bullet. More weighty still is what happens off the court: a richly imagined world where athleticism bleeds into narratives that are empathetic and sharp, tender and tight . . . \u003ci\u003eUnderspin\u003c\/i\u003e is meaty with brain and brawn, radically alive in surprising ways. A tremendous writer of fiction is born.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eSam Franzini,\u003ci\u003e Soft Union\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In the great sports novel, the game is rarely just a game. It is a mirror for the self, a stage for obsession, a pressure chamber for identity. From the disciplined collapse of Harbach’s \u003ci\u003eThe Art of Fielding\u003c\/i\u003e to the philosophical drift of Chen’s \u003ci\u003eSo Many Olympic Exertions \u003c\/i\u003eand the fractal intensity of Wallace’s tennis in \u003ci\u003eInfinite Jest\u003c\/i\u003e, the most enduring works in the genre use sport not to celebrate victory but to illuminate the private costs of ambition. \u003ci\u003eUnderspin \u003c\/i\u003ebelongs in that company. It understands that the most important matches take place far from the scoreboard, in the spaces where doubt accumulates and the body becomes a record of what it has endured.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eOlivia Cheng, \u003ci\u003eThe Metropolitan Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Beautifully written, funny, and tragic, \u003ci\u003eUnderspin\u003c\/i\u003e is a triumph of a novel.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eAngela F. Hui, \u003ci\u003eChicago Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Zhao captures the suspense of a table-tennis match in prose that illuminates small moments, conversations, and actions, slowly revealing what turned immense excellence into a tremendous tragedy. Zhao's finest victory is encapsulating both the highest highs and lowest lows of Ryan's life with the same amount of complexity, nuance, and detail. \u003ci\u003eUnderspin \u003c\/i\u003eshowcases the pressure, isolation, and loneliness of high-level sports . . . [A] smashing debut.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eClara Newton, \u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This debut novel is a literary puzzle that examines the short and tumultuous life of a table tennis prodigy through the eyes of those pulled into his orbit. Early reviews include these notable takes: 'A devastatingly heavy book about ping pong!!!!' and 'E.Y. Zhao did the impossible: she made me enjoy reading a book about sports.'\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eCybil Wallace, \u003ci\u003eGoodreads\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Andre Agassi’s \u003ci\u003eOpen\u003c\/i\u003e meets Jennifer Egan’s \u003ci\u003eA Visit From the Goon Squad \u003c\/i\u003ein this wildly exciting, whipsmart and beautiful novel of a tragic table tennis star, told by those who were closest to him. Mobile, adventurous, and deeply imaginative, it’s a stunner of a debut.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eSam Franzini, \u003ci\u003eOur Culture\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A quietly devastating novel . . . Zhao is a master of careful plotting and mystery—the real kind that cottons to morally complex situations . . . A poet of table tennis, Zhao turns this underappreciated sport into a nimbly described choreography of Tomahawk serves, switch-handed chops, and forehand and backhand loops. A smart novel that examines the impact competitive sports have on kids without assigning winners or losers.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"An illuminating story of dedication and sacrifice.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Drive, desire, and determination in the table tennis world are central to exploring how outside forces can shape us. I love a good sports novel and this is a gold medal of a novel. It shocks and awes as good as the masters.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eAdam Vitcavage, \u003ci\u003eDebutiful\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"E.Y. Zhao's debut novel,\u003ci\u003e Underspin\u003c\/i\u003e, deftly constructs the world of one table tennis prodigy, all through the lives of his friends, teammates, lovers, coaches, and students . . . Full of heart and big questions about what makes life worth living. Zhao is a writer to watch.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eMargaret, Dotters Books\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eChallengers\u003c\/i\u003e, but make it table tennis . . . I love a character portrait and I love a bildungsroman and I love a sports story that isn’t really about sports.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eMcKayla Coyle, \u003ci\u003eLit Hub\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"E. Y. Zhao's \u003ci\u003eUnderspin\u003c\/i\u003e is an eruption of a debut. This novel displays a wondrous ability that renders both the central sport and lives that weave around it with meticulous precision and tremendous heart. The beauty of sport the spirit of desire and the sacrifice required for greatness are all captured here in this stunner.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eNana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of\u003ci\u003e Chain-Gang All-Stars\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"E. Y. Zhao writes with kinetic genius about the fast paced, ultracompetitive world of table tennis, and the bliss and heartbreak of chasing greatness. \u003ci\u003eUnderspin\u003c\/i\u003e is as suspenseful as a championship game and as perfectly orchestrated as a winning shot.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eLaura van den Berg, author of \u003ci\u003eState of Paradise\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eUnderspin\u003c\/i\u003e is a kaleidoscopic novel about many things: the dark center of hurt, its ripples, and the unpayable costs of ambition. Zhao's prose is a marvel—sly, seductive, and cutthroat as a kill shot.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eRob Franklin, author of \u003ci\u003eGreat Black Hope\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"E. Y. Zhao arrives on the literary scene like Minerva emerging from the head of Zeus: fully formed, formidable, and a superior force to be reckoned with. Who knew the world needed a table-tennis novel? Except that it is not a table tennis novel, or not just one—it is, indelibly, what the novel has always been about: the tangle of human life; error, power, damage, striving; the complicated ties that connect us in a web at once tensile, tough, and frangible. Written in beautiful, burnished prose, and structured in a dazzlingly intelligent way,\u003ci\u003e Underspin\u003c\/i\u003e will make you ask: How can this be a first novel?\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eNeel Mukherjee, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Lives of Others \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eChoice\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"E. Y. Zhao’s virtuosic debut explores the underside of athletic success, spinning an intimate and exacting portrait of the high stakes world of elite table tennis. It is about the price paid when the pursuit of excellence goes awry, when love and abuse, tenderness and brutality, begin to feel synonymous. Written in kinetic, thrilling prose that vibrates on the page, \u003ci\u003eUnderspin \u003c\/i\u003ewill pull you into its relentless rally and leave you breathless.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eAnelise Chen, author of\u003ci\u003e So Many Olympic Exertions\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"E. Y. Zhao’s \u003ci\u003eUnderspin\u003c\/i\u003e hurtles down the line and leaves a trail of fire in its wake. An electric debut.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eJenny Tinghui Zhang, author of\u003ci\u003e Four Treasures of the Sky\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"An unconventional and stylish portrait of a table tennis wunderkid, Underspin explores the different forces that shape us into who we become. Zhao takes us not only into the packed competition halls and spotless training centers that define one's career, but the intimate hotel rooms and quiet suburban kitchens that define one's coming-of-age. Both tender and brutal, visceral and cerebral, this book will immerse you in its high-stakes world until the very last page.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eAlina Grabowski, author of \u003ci\u003eWomen and Children First\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A staggeringly good debut, written with élan, compassion and wit, that takes the world of professional table-tennis and serves us a story about prestige, abuse, ambition, loyalty and the terrible results of feeling surveilled by the eye of high expectations.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Kaliane Bradley, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Ministry of Time\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eE.Y. Zhao is a writer from St. Louis. Her work has appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe Georgia Review, Electric Lit,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eChicago Review of Books,\u003c\/i\u003e among others, and she edits fiction for \u003ci\u003eJoyland Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e. She holds an MFA in prose from the University of Michigan and a BA in history from Harvard College. Her fiction has been recognized by the Georgia Review Prose Prize, the Le Baron Russell Briggs Prize, and various Hopwood awards.","brand":"Astra House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233812132069,"sku":"NP9781662603266","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781662603266.jpg?v=1767743229","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/underspin-isbn-9781662603266","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}