Time magazine's #2 best book of nonfiction, 2014
Step into the octagon . . .
Welcome to the heart of the fight. Three years and two fighters - one ageing, tired, struggling from one backstreet dive to another; and one young, fast, going places, punching it out in packed Las Vegas arenas. One on the way up and the other on the way out. And they fight and they fight - while through it all Kit, a spacetaker, a ghost haunting their cages, follows and assists them, drawn to the dark allure of men living from blow to blow, where the true battle is never with their opponent but always and forever with themselves.
'Riotously entertaining and piercingly perceptive. Howley's writing is as lithe and punchy as her subjects are in the Octagon.' Spectator
'By turns bloodthirsty and poetic. So seductive.' Financial Times
'A poetic portrait of a bloody American subculture.' O, The Oprah Magazine
'The most fascinating book I've read this year. The precision of Howley's prose reminds me of Joan Didion or David Foster Wallace.' Time
'Truly gripping, stunning.' Salon
'Mesmerising.' Houston Chronicle
