Rust and Bone

In steel-tipped prose, Craig Davidson conjures up a bleak world popularized by hard-scrabble pugilists, fighting dogs, sex addicts, and others held captive by their own bad luck and bad decisions. In story after story, Davidson follows his characters into situations bereft of all hope-a repo man watches his wife degenerate with illness, a whale trainer feels his life has lost all meaning after his leg is bitten off by an orca, and a sex addict struggles with his guilty conscience. Yet, despite the darkness within these stories, they each have a moment of redemption because of the humanity with which Davidson is able to invest his characters. Visceral and with a dark urgency, Rust and Bone is the most original debut since Thom Jones’ The Pugilist at Rest.