Longshot

Abrilliant, spare debut novel that follows a former mixed martial arts star and his longtime coach over the course of three fraught days as they prepare for his momentous comeback match.

Four years after Rivera knocked Cal from dominance, Cals coach, Riley, has set up a rematchit will be good for Cal, and hes ready for it. Hes been training harder than ever, trying to shake the lethargy thats plagued him ever since he lost. Knowing hes going to face Rivera again, he gets his focus and energy back. He agrees with Riley: hes ready.

But Rivera has never lost a fight, and in the final days before the match, both Cal and Riley secretly begin to doubt that he can be beaten now. The stakes are high for themnot only do they have no idea what else theyll do with themselves besides MMA, theyre also desperate not to let each other down.

In taut, rhythmic language, Katie Kitamuraa journalist who has followed MMA for yearsrenders the urgency, discipline, and mutual affection of athlete and coach with depth and subtlety. As an excruciating tension builds toward the final electrifying scene, their plight becomes our plight, the looming fight becomes every challenge each of us has ever taken on, however uncertain the outcome.

This striking debut upholds a tradition of literary writing about gritty subject matter that includes Denis Johnson and Norman Mailer and goes back through Dos Passos, Steinbeck, and Hemingway. Fans of literary fiction will be drawn to The Finishs stylized, sensitive portrait of two men striving to stay true to themselves and each other in the only way they know how.