Underspin: A Novel

by E. Y. Zhao

Overview

"E. Y. Zhao's Underspin 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 Chain-Gang All-Stars

Stay True meets Headshot 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.

Ryan 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.

By 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?

In crisp, evocative prose, Underspin 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, Underspin is a bildungsroman and literary puzzle for readers of Rita Bullwinkel, Hua Hsu, Susan Choi, and Brandon Taylor.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781662603266
Publisher:	Astra Publishing House
Publication date:	09/23/2025
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.82(w) x 8.56(h) x 0.98(d)

About the Author

E.Y. Zhao is a writer from St. Louis. Her work has appeared in The Georgia Review, Electric Lit, and Chicago Review of Books, among others, and she edits fiction for Joyland Magazine. 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.

Editorial Reviews

"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."
—Kirkus Reviews

"An illuminating story of dedication and sacrifice."
—Publishers Weekly

"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."
—Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful

"Challengers, 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."
—McKayla Coyle, Lit Hub

"E. Y. Zhao's Underspin 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 Chain-Gang All-Stars

"E. Y. Zhao writes with kinetic genius about the fast paced, ultracompetitive world of table tennis, and the bliss and heartbreak of chasing greatness. Underspin is as suspenseful as a championship game and as perfectly orchestrated as a winning shot."
—Laura van den Berg, author of State of Paradise

"Underspin 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."
—Rob Franklin, author of Great Black Hope

"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, Underspin will make you ask: How can this be a first novel?"
—Neel Mukherjee, author of The Lives of Others and Choice

"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, Underspin will pull you into its relentless rally and leave you breathless."
—Anelise Chen, author of So Many Olympic Exertions

"E. Y. Zhao’s Underspin hurtles down the line and leaves a trail of fire in its wake. An electric debut."
—Jenny Tinghui Zhang, author of Four Treasures of the Sky

"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."
—Alina Grabowski, author of Women and Children First

From the Publisher