Leonard Gardner

Another knockout from NYRB Classics, Fat City tells the tale of two down-and-out boxers in Stockton, California. They box, they fight with their women, they lose, they win, they win nothing. Gardner's prose is lucid and poetic and the plot is minimalistic—yet there's so much to admire in this novel, it's a wonder that it isn't renowned as an American classic. This reissue should expand its audience, especially for fans of social realism with a dash of noir. – Kenneth Loosli