A teenage sports game descends into a brawl after a controversial line call in a fast-paced contemporary novel from the bestselling author of The Orchardist’s Daughter.
When a violent brawl erupts at a suburban junior soccer game, some onlookers are shocked. But others saw it coming. Rivalry, parental pressure, coaching bias, inequity and many other factors have played a part in turning Saturday mornings into a pressure cooker.
Thirteen-year-old Audrey is a talented young football player. But does she want to play for Australia or does she just want to please her father, Ben, whose own thwarted sporting career looms large in his ambitions for his daughter? Audrey’s mother, Jonica, doesn’t know whether to be more concerned about her anxious daughter, her overbearing husband, or the only other girl on the team, Katerina, who is causing trouble on and off the field. And Katerina’s mother, Carmen, is so busy looking for opportunities to give Katerina more game time that she fails to notice what is really capturing her daughter’s attention.
When Griffin, a naturally gifted player with spectacular skills, arrives, the tension within the team reaches boiling point. But who is going to crack first – the parents or the players?
Canberra-based author Karen Viggers has an impressive backlist, with four novels, The Stranding, The Lightkeeper’s Wife, The Grass Castle and The Orchardist’s Daughter, preceding her latest, Sidelines. Her books are always compulsively readable, without shying away from difficult subject matter.
Viggers has done it again with this timely page-turner. Sidelines is a must-read for anyone who found themself swept up in Matilda’s madness during the 2023 World Cup, but the scope of its sharp commentary spans much wider than just soccer or even sports. This is a forensic investigation into contemporary Australian child-rearing, exposing the web of fine lines that lie between supportive encouragement and overwhelming pressure, healthy involvement and helicopter parenting.
Sidelines launches us into disarray and disquiet from the start, with an unidentified figure lying unconscious in the middle of a soccer field during what was supposed to be a regular under-14s game. Viggers then zooms out from this uncannily familiar yet shocking scene, and skilfully, suspensefully reveals a series of seemingly innocuous, everyday occurrences in the team members’ family lives that build up to the violent incident.
Viggers has a talent for approaching complex topics from all sides at once. By adopting the perspectives of six very different characters – three teens and three parents – involved in the incident, Viggers refuses to simplify the story down to a straightforward narrative of cause and effect or ‘goodies vs baddies’. Your heart will break for all the characters at once, with their flawed humanity evident even – or especially – at the height of some very poor decision-making.
The result is a gripping and very real exploration of contemporary parenting. It’s about the culture that surrounds striving for excellence, which so easily turns toxic; the ripples of sexism that undermine supposed egalitarianism in teenage sports; and the environments that breed bullying and affect kids’ mental health. It’s also a book about coming-of-age in teenhood, and self-realisation in parents of teens. Yes, all this from the sidelines of a youth soccer game!
As we head into another school year, with our kids’ extracurricular commitments about to increase exponentially, now is the time to pick up this thought-provoking read. It’s a definite must-read for anyone who’s found themselves screaming on the sidelines of a children’s sporting event – or side-eying a fellow spectator doing the same!
Readers should be aware that Sidelines includes graphic depictions of self-harm.
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