Fight Night

'A Gem: humour and hope in the face of suffering' Observer

by Miriam Toews

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Pub Date 2 Jun 2022 | Archive Date 3 Jun 2022

Faber and Faber Ltd | Faber & Faber

General Fiction (Adult)

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Description

'I doubt I'll read a better novel.' Big Issue
'Go Grandma Elvira!' Margaret Atwood
'Wickedly funny and fearlessly honest.' The New Yorker
'Glorious.' Sarah Moss
'A love letter to our brave and brilliant matriarchs.' Glamour
'Miriam Toews is a genius.' R. O. Kwon
'As compelling and hilarious and indecently sad as life can be.' Financial Times
____________
You are a small thing, and you must learn to fight.

Swiv has taken her grandmother's advice too literally. Now she's at home, suspended from school. Mom is pregnant and preoccupied - and so Swiv is in the older woman's charge, receiving a very different form of education from a teacher with a style all her own.

Grandma likes her stories fast, troublesome and funny. She's known the very worst that life can throw at you - and has met it every time with a wild, unnamable spirit, fighting for joy and independence every step of the way. But will maths lessons based on Amish jigsaws and classes on How to Dig a Winter Grave inspire the same fire in Swiv, and ensure it never goes out?

Time is running short. Grandma's health is failing, the baby is on the way, as a family of three extraordinary women prepare to face life's great changes together.

Poignant, hilarious and deeply moving, Fight Night is a girl's love letter to the women raising her and a tribute to one family's fighting spirit.

Advance Praise

A Guardian 2022 fiction highlight

'Fight Night is glorious: funny and sad and beautifully written.' – Sarah Moss

'Sets standards for grandmotherly swearing and outspokenness I can never hope to match. ' – Margaret Atwood (via Twitter)

'Tender, heart-wrenching, darkly funny, and ultimately joyful, this novel pulses with life.' – Christina Baker Kline

'A touching tribute to the matrilineal bond among three women of different generations, emphasizing the ways in which joy can be a form of resistance.' – Los Angeles Times

A Guardian 2022 fiction highlight

'Fight Night is glorious: funny and sad and beautifully written.' – Sarah Moss

'Sets standards for grandmotherly swearing and outspokenness I can never hope to match...