Donnybrook
Published on 7. March 2013
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-0-434-02153-6 (ISBN)
Description
The Donnybrook is a three-day bare-knuckle tournament held on a thousand-acre plot out in the sticks of southern Indiana. Twenty fighters. One wire-fence ring. Fight until only one man is left standing while a rowdy festival of onlookers - drunk and high on whatever's on offer - bet on the outcome.
Jarhead is a desperate man who'd do just about anything to feed his children. He's also the toughest fighter in southeastern Kentucky, and he's convinced that his ticket to a better life is one last fight with a cash prize so big it'll solve all his problems. Meanwhile, there's Chainsaw Angus - an undefeated master fighter who isn't too keen on getting his face punched anymore, so he and his sister, Liz, have started cooking meth. And they get in deep. So deep that Liz wants it all for herself, and she might just be ready to kill her brother for it.
As we travel through the backwoods on the way to the Donnybrook, we meet a cast of nasty, ruined characters driven to all sorts of evil, all in the name of getting their fix - drugs, violence, sex, money, honour. Donnybrook is exactly the fearless, explosive, amphetamine-fuelled journey you'd expect from Frank Bill's first novel . . . and then some.
Jarhead is a desperate man who'd do just about anything to feed his children. He's also the toughest fighter in southeastern Kentucky, and he's convinced that his ticket to a better life is one last fight with a cash prize so big it'll solve all his problems. Meanwhile, there's Chainsaw Angus - an undefeated master fighter who isn't too keen on getting his face punched anymore, so he and his sister, Liz, have started cooking meth. And they get in deep. So deep that Liz wants it all for herself, and she might just be ready to kill her brother for it.
As we travel through the backwoods on the way to the Donnybrook, we meet a cast of nasty, ruined characters driven to all sorts of evil, all in the name of getting their fix - drugs, violence, sex, money, honour. Donnybrook is exactly the fearless, explosive, amphetamine-fuelled journey you'd expect from Frank Bill's first novel . . . and then some.
Reviews / Votes
A dark and brutal debut. Donnybrook is a bellow of rage from the American heartland, and Bill is the new bard of the disaffected rural underclass. * Roger Smith, author of Wake Up Dead * Raw desperation and powerful prose pack a knockout punch in Donnybrook. Frank Bill's novel is a winner. * Hilary Davidson, author of The Damage Done * The prose is vivid and visceral, especially the fight scenes. Bill manages to accurately portray intricate movements and action without losing pace. These set pieces are often imaginative, original and horrific... There's a definite cinematic quality to the whole narrative. * Bookmunch * A breathless, enthralling read * Shortlist * Donnybrook is as subtle as a 12-gauge shotgun blast to the face...[A] coruscating new voice writing in the American rural noir tradition of Daniel Woodrell and Donald Ray Pollock. -- Doug Johnstone * Independent on Sunday *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Cornerstone
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 143 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
428 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-434-02153-6 (9780434021536)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Frank Bill lives and writes in southern Indiana. He is the author of Crimes in Southern Indiana.