SHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2023/2024
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK AWARD 2023
A DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR
A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR
A NEW YORKER BOOK OF THE YEAR
About one woman’s fine, hard life at the racetrack, Kick the Latch – with its ruthless concision and artful mysteries – is lightning in a bottle
Kathryn Scanlan’s Kick the Latch vividly captures the arc of one woman’s life at the racetrack – the flat land and ramshackle backstretch; the bad feelings and friction; the winner’s circle and the racetrack bar; the fancy suits and fancy boots; and the ‘particular language’ of ‘grooms, jockeys, trainers, racing secretaries, stewards, pony people, hotwalkers, everybody’ – with economy and integrity.
Based on transcribed interviews with Sonia, a horse trainer, the novel investigates form and authenticity in a feat of synthesis reminiscent of Charles Reznikoff’s Testimony. As Scanlan puts it, ‘I wanted to preserve – amplify, exaggerate – Sonia’s idiosyncratic speech, her bluntness, her flair as a storyteller. I arrived at what you could call a composite portrait of a self.’ Whittled down with a fiercely singular artistry, Kick the Latch bangs out of the starting gate and carries the reader on a careening joyride around the inside track.
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Kick the Latch 9781914198250 Paperback
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- Authors:
- Scanlan, Kathryn
- Year Published:
- 2023
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Format:
- Paperback
- ISBN:
- 9781914198250
- Number of Pages:
- 96
- Publication Date:
- 19/01/2023
- Publisher:
- Daunt Books
- Place of Publication:
- London
- SKU:
- 9781914198250