Description

THE ACRES AND ACRES OF FERTILE SOIL – THE TWO-HUNDRED-YEAR-OLD ANTEBELLUM HOUSE – ALL GONE

And so is the woman who gave it to him. The foster mother who saved Jack Boucher from a childhood of abandonment now rests in a hospice. Her mind eroded by dementia, the family legacy she entrusted to Jack is now owned by banks and strangers. And Jack’s mind is failing too, as concussion after concussion forces him to carry around a notebook of names that separate friend from foe.

In a single twisted night Jack is derailed. Losing the money that will clear his debt with the queen of Delta vice, and forcing Jack into the fighting pit one last time. The stakes? Nothing less than life or death.

Publisher Review

Like living language, literary modes have both a formal and a demotic form. What we call "noir" is high tragedy brought down to the forgotten and disavowed -- the fallen, who can do little but go on falling. Ours to witness the beauty and power of their fall. With The Fighter, cleaving to tradition, Michael Farris Smith brings that tradition brilliantly into the present -- James Sallis Smith's narrative manages to stay just ahead of disintegration, and does so with style, lush prose, and storytelling assurance... The Fighter is a triumph. It confirms Smith's status as one of our foremost authors in the Rough South, Grit Lit tradition established by Crews, Larry Brown, Tom Franklin, William Gay and the towering Cormac McCarthy * Clarion Ledger * This resourceful writer weds violence, despair, and glimmers of hope during a few tense days in the life of a once-legendary bare-knuckle fighter... A gifted storyteller who parses battered dreams and the legacies of abandonment with a harsh realism that is both saddening and engaging * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) * Equal parts brutal and beautiful and harrowing, it's left me totally bereft -- Chris Whitaker, Author of Tall Oaks and All The Wicked Girls, winner of the CWA New Blood Dagger Smith's fiction is full of hard people in tough situations, but his obvious love of language and innately rhythmic prose lift his stories to a higher level -- Doug Johnstone * The Big Issue *