Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh.

Does it ever hit you how young professional athletes can be?

I was just watching some NBA highlight reel on Reddit the other day, and this kid,

Jalen Duren on the Pistons, is 19. 19.

The athlete at the center of today's novel is even younger, you know, in the single digits,

and she's also got the weight of her government breathing down her neck.

The book is called Winterland by Ray Meadows, and it's about how a young gymnastics wonderkind

named Anya navigates this absolute meat grinder of the system, one that results in big wins

for the Soviet Union at the Olympics at the cost of

their athletes' agency.

But Meadows tells NPR's David Fulkenflik, it's also about how she still holds on to a love

for gymnastics, despite all that.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

The setting is a country that no longer exists.

The time two generations ago.

I'm speaking of Winterland, a new novel with themes that endure.

It's the story of a girl anticipating what it is to be a young woman,

...