FROM THE WINNER OF THE 2026 GEORGE PLIMPTON PRIZE
“This book is like if the tennis students from Infinite Jest were Chinese twelve-year-olds who drank beer . . . Ping Pong Kids is the greatest, funniest, most honest book I’ve read about the nature of prodigy. Renny Gong is quite clearly a prodigy himself, and this batty, brilliant debut novel will have you doing every possible kind of crying.”
—Tony Tulathimutte, author of Rejection
An uproariously funny and surprisingly tender debut novel following a junior ping pong player who travels from Los Angeles to rural China to spend a transformative summer at an elite Table Tennis Academy
When our twelve-year-old narrator arrives at the Academy in Qingdao, he thinks he’s prepared: he’s the No. 5 ranked table tennis player in the US for his age, and under Mother’s watch, has trained his whole life for his hard-won success. However, the Academy is no summer camp, and the boy quickly learns that he’s arrived at a militant breeding ground for champion ping pong players, complete with 2.5-mile runs each morning, ten hours of training every day, and strict punishments for misbehavior. He must find his way in this grueling pecking order amid the preteen antics of his new peers, who regard their fresh competitor with suspicion and who snidely give him the nickname America. As America slowly acclimates to his surroundings and to life without Mother, he finds a small measure of independence and a tender friendship with his roommate, Durian.
Just as America finds his footing, Mother appears without warning in Qingdao, and America’s new life shifts again. Mother’s presence is both a source of comfort and stress. At tryouts for a high-stakes provincial tournament, a head-to-head matchup with Durian destabilizes the boys’ friendship and causes an explosive fight between America and Mother, and the future they have always worked for together hangs in the balance.
Ping pong matches shot through with energy are paired with hilarious, poignant scenes of boyhood and a robust cast of memorable, utterly unique characters, resulting in a singular, unforgettable novel. Ping Pong Kids is a nuanced look at tiger parenting, an innovative exploration of Chinese American identity and cultural diaspora, and an earnest defense of the sport of table tennis.
