Chetna Maroo

Maroo was born in Kenya.{{Cite web |title=Chetna Maroo |url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/chetna-maroo |access-date=2023-09-23 |website=The Booker Prizes |language=en}}{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2022-03-09 |title=Chetna Maroo Wins This Year’s Plimpton Prize |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2022/03/09/238-announcement-2/ |access-date=2023-09-23 |website=The Paris Review |language=en}} As of 2023, she lived in London.

Maroo was originally employed as an accountant before devoting herself to writing full time.

In 2023, she published her debut novel, Western Lane, with Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Maroo's debut novel, Western Lane, was published February 7, 2023 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The novel follows Gopi, an 11-year-old girl who has been playing squash since she could first grasp a racket. Following her mother's death, her father begins training her more intensely. With this training, she drifts away from her sisters and cares only about squash. When she's on the court, she feels more connected to her father and connects with Ged, who also excels playing squash. Further, she feels connected to everyone who played on the court before her.{{Cite book |title=Western Lane |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |year=2023 |isbn=9780374607494}}

Western Lane was well received by critics, including a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, who called it "a debut novel of immense poise and promise."{{Cite web |date=2022-11-15 |title=Western Lane |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/chetna-maroo/western-lane/ |access-date=2023-09-23 |website=Kirkus Reviews}} On Book Marks, from four critics: three "rave" and one "positive".{{Cite web |title=Western Lane|url=https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/western-lane/|access-date=16 January 2024 |website=Book Marks}}

Given the familiar storyline presented, The Guardian{{'s}} Caleb Klaces noted that readers "might expect Western Lane to feel formulaic, but it doesn’t. It feels like the work of a writer who knows what they want to do, and who has the rare ability to do it."{{Cite news |last=Klaces |first=Caleb |date=2023-04-26 |title=Western Lane by Chetna Maroo review – a tender debut |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/26/western-lane-by-chetna-maroo-review-a-tender-debut |access-date=2023-09-23 |issn=0261-3077}}

American novelist and squash player Ivy Pochoda, writing for The New York Times Book Review, called Western Lane "polished and disciplined", saying, "The beauty of Maroo’s novel lies in that unfolding, the narrative shaped as much by what is on the page as by what’s left unsaid".{{Cite news |last=Pochoda |first=Ivy |date=2023-02-07 |title=‘Western Lane’ Finds Solace From Grief on the Squash Court |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/books/review/western-lane-chetna-maroo.html |access-date=2023-09-23 |issn=0362-4331}} Similarly, Shelf Awareness's Shahina Piyarali called Maroo "a marvelous and restrained storyteller".{{Cite web |last=Piyarali |first=Shahina |date=2023-01-03 |title=Review: Western Lane |url=https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=4387 |access-date=2023-09-23 |website=Shelf Awareness}}

Publishers Weekly called Western Lane "compact and powerful," highlighting how "Maroo skillfully balances" the novel's varied dramas.{{Cite web |date=2022-11-08 |title=Western Lane |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780374607517 |access-date=2023-09-23 |website=Publishers Weekly}}

Booklist also reviewed the novel,{{Cite web |date=2022-12-01 |title=Western Lane |url=https://www.booklistonline.com/Western-Lane-/pid=9769788 |access-date=2023-09-23 |website=Booklist}} as well the audiobook, noting that "London actor [Maya] Saroya is a gentle, measured cipher, moving seamlessly between the crisper British English of the sisters and their contemporaries and the more lyrical South Asian accents of the older generation. Hers is an unhurried performance, as if leaving open breathing room for the unspeakable, the absent, and perhaps even a little space for hopeful potential."{{Cite web |last=Hong |first=Terry |date=2023-06-01 |title=Western Lane |url=https://www.booklistonline.com/Western-Lane-/pid=9778585 |access-date=2023-09-23 |website=Booklist}}

• {{Cite book |title=Western Lane |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |year=2023 |isbn=9780374607494}}

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Category:Living people

Category:Writers from London

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)