The Fighter: Now filmed as Rumble Through the Dark

Description

In this brilliant novel set against the dark and desolate backdrop of the Mississippi Delta, a washed-up bare-knuckle fighter battles against decades of booze and drug abuse as he returns home to try and save all he has lost. 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 abandonmnet 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. 'A searing, intense tale of masculinity and salvation, filled with abandonment and brutality, lit only dimly by rare human connection and the possibility of love... a short, sharp, stunning book' - Roman Clodia, NetGalley

Michael Farris Smith is the award-winning author of Salvage This World, NICK, Blackwood, The Fighter, Desperation Road, Rivers, and The Hands of Strangers. His novels have appeared on Best of the Year lists with Esquire, NPR, Southern Living, Garden & Gun, Book Riot and numerous other outlets, and have been named Indie Next, Barnes & Noble Discover, and Amazon Best of the Month selections. He has also written the feature-film adaptations of his novels Desperation Road and The Fighter, titled for the screen as Rumble Through the Dark. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife and daughters.

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 *