Description
Daunt Books are thrilled to be publishing this knockout new novel from the incredible Rita Bullwinkel.
Headshot is the story of the eight best teenage girl boxers in the United States, told over the two days of a championship tournament and structured as a series of face-offs. As the girls’ pasts and futures collide, the specific joy and violence of the sport comes to life with electric energy, and a portrait emerges of the desire, envy, perfectionism, madness and sheer physical pleasure that motivates each of these young women to fight.
This is a novel about the radicalness and strangeness of being physically intimate with another human when you are measuring your own body, through competition, against theirs.
Funny, propulsive, obsessive and ecstatic, Headshot is equal parts subtle and intense, as it brings us to the sidelines of the ring and above and beyond it, examining closely the eight girls’ lives, which intersect for a moment – a universe that shimmers and resonates.
Rita will be here to discuss her luminous book with the poet and critic Declan Ryan. His first collection of poetry, Crisis Actor, is published by Faber & Faber. His reviews and essays have appeared in journals including New York Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, The Observer and New Statesman amongst many others.
Ticket price includes a glass of wine or a soft drink.