Headshot: A Novel

ISBN-13:	9780593654101
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/12/2024
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	50,624
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

Named a Best Book of 2024 (So Far) by The New York Times Book Review and Vulture “Make room, American fiction, for a meaningful new voice.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times Book Review“As blazing and distinctive a performance as I’ve beheld in a long while . . . I’m amazed.” —Jonathan Lethem, author of Brooklyn Crime Novel and Motherless BrooklynAn electrifying debut novel from an “unusually gifted writer” (Lorrie Moore) about the radical intimacy of physical competitionAn unexpected tragedy at a community pool. A family’s unrelenting expectation of victory. The desire to gain or lose control; to make time speed up or stop; to be frighteningly, undeniably good at something. Each of the eight teenage girl boxers in this blistering debut novel has her own reasons for the sacrifices she has made to come to Reno, Nevada, to compete to be named the best in the country. Through a series of face-offs that are raw, ecstatic, and punctuated by flashes of humor and tenderness, prizewinning writer Rita Bullwinkel animates the competitors’ pasts and futures as they summon the emotion, imagination, and force of will required to win.Frenetic, surprising, and strikingly original, Headshot is a portrait of the desire, envy, perfectionism, madness, and sheer physical pleasure that motivate young women to fight—even, and perhaps especially, when no one else is watching.