A blistering novel of violence and deliverance set against the mythic backdrop of the Mississippi Delta.
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 Jack, the foster mother only days away from dying, her mind eroded by dementia, the family legacy she entrusted to Jack now owned by banks and strangers.
And Jack's mind has begun to fail, too. The decades of bare-knuckle fighting are now taking their toll, as concussion after concussion forces him to carry around a stash of illegal painkillers and a notebook of names that separates friend from foe. But in a single twisted night, Jack loses his chance to win it all back. Hijacked by a sleazy gambler out to settle a score, Jack is robbed of the money that will clear his debt with Big Momma Sweet -- the queen of Delta vice, whose deep backwoods playground offers sin to all those willing to pay -- and open a path that could lead him back home. Yet this sudden reversal of fortunes introduces an unlikely savior in the form of a sultry, tattooed carnival worker.
Guided by what she calls her "church of coincidence," Annette pushes Jack toward redemption, only to discover that the world of Big Momma Sweet is filled with savage danger. Damaged by regret, crippled by twenty-five years of fists and elbows, heartbroken by his own betrayals, Jack is forced to step into the fighting pit one last time, the stakes nothing less than life or death. With the raw power and poetry of a young Larry Brown and the mysticism of Cormac McCarthy, Michael Farris Smith cements his place as one of the finest writers in the American literary landscape.
Show moreA blistering novel of violence and deliverance set against the mythic backdrop of the Mississippi Delta.
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 Jack, the foster mother only days away from dying, her mind eroded by dementia, the family legacy she entrusted to Jack now owned by banks and strangers.
And Jack's mind has begun to fail, too. The decades of bare-knuckle fighting are now taking their toll, as concussion after concussion forces him to carry around a stash of illegal painkillers and a notebook of names that separates friend from foe. But in a single twisted night, Jack loses his chance to win it all back. Hijacked by a sleazy gambler out to settle a score, Jack is robbed of the money that will clear his debt with Big Momma Sweet -- the queen of Delta vice, whose deep backwoods playground offers sin to all those willing to pay -- and open a path that could lead him back home. Yet this sudden reversal of fortunes introduces an unlikely savior in the form of a sultry, tattooed carnival worker.
Guided by what she calls her "church of coincidence," Annette pushes Jack toward redemption, only to discover that the world of Big Momma Sweet is filled with savage danger. Damaged by regret, crippled by twenty-five years of fists and elbows, heartbroken by his own betrayals, Jack is forced to step into the fighting pit one last time, the stakes nothing less than life or death. With the raw power and poetry of a young Larry Brown and the mysticism of Cormac McCarthy, Michael Farris Smith cements his place as one of the finest writers in the American literary landscape.
Show moreMichael Farris Smith is the author of The Fighter, Desperation Road, Rivers, and The Hands of Strangers. His novels have appeared on Best of the Year lists with Esquire, Southern Living, Book Riot, and numerous others, and have been named Indie Next List, Barnes & Noble Discover, and Amazon Best of the Month selections. He has been a finalist for the Southern Book Prize, the Gold Dagger Award in the UK, and the Grand Prix des Lectrices in France, and his essays have appeared with The New York Times, Bitter Southerner, Writer's Bone, and more. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife and two daughters.
Praise for The Fighter "One of those wonderful and rare books
that's both a page-turner and a novel of great depth and emotion.
The Fighter is Southern noir at its finest."--Ace Atkins, New York
Times bestselling author of The Fallen and The Sinners
"The Fighter is a beautifully written parable of a man, abandoned
as a child, at war with himself. Hiding behind the expertly-handled
plot and poetic meditations on violence and substance abuse is the
notion that lack of family can send you on a continuous tumble
through darkness. With its tension-filled and enlightening final
chapters, The Fighter delivers a powerful and engaging read from
one of our newest and finest writers."
--Tim Gautreaux, author of The Missing
"A dark bluesy tale, The Fighter is the raw story of a broke-down
Mississippi cage fighter searching for deliverance in whatever form
it appears."--Shelf Awareness
"A grizzled, brown liquor-drenched gem."--Dallas Morning News
"Ferocious... vivid descriptions never slow the pace of the plot,
which moves swiftly toward an inevitable but still surprising
climax. As violent as it is poetic, Smith's novel draws the reader
in from beginning to end."--Publishers Weekly
"I loved The Fighter. Michael Farris Smith is one of the most
exciting new voices in American fiction. Just as I couldn't put
down Desperation Road till I finished, I tore through this novel as
well. I'm hooked."
--Brad Watson, author of Miss Jane
"It is a devastatingly efficient novel that coils and releases its
mammoth punches in blinding succession - the literary equivalent of
a first-round knockout. It's over before you're ready to let it go,
but it remains viscerally satisfying in its brutality and
brevity."--Winnipeg Free Press
"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, Michael Farris Smith brings that tradition
brilliantly into the present."--James Sallis, author of Drive
"Michael Farris Smith cements his place as one of the finest
writers in the American literary landscape."--Fantastic Fiction
"Michael Farris Smith is continuing the Southern Gothic tradition
of William Gay and Flannery O'Connor. Drenched in sorrow and
written with complex language, The Fighter moves toward a
conclusion both surprising and inevitable."--Chris Offutt, author
of Country Dark and Kentucky Straight
"Michael Farris Smith is so good, I might actually hate him a
little bit. The Fighter is a book I wish I'd written but am deeply
grateful I got to read. It is a masterful portrait of place and
character and how one influences the other, with language that is
both brutal and tender at once. Smith loves Jack Boucher and the
Mississippi Delta to the bone."--Attica Locke, author of Bluebird,
Bluebird
"This crisply written tale of thwarted lives and rawboned courage
will sit comfortably alongside the similarly hardscrabble work of
Daniel Woodrell and Chris Offutt."--Booklist (starred review)
"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 (starred review)
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