Thrown

A woman's "masterful . . . involving and page-turning" venture into the violent world of mixed martial arts (Gary Shteyngart).

A provocative question is asked in this "knockout of a nonfiction debut" ( O, The Oprah Magazine ) and New York Times Book Review , NPR , Slate , and Time magazine best book of the year : "Who can explain what draws a young brilliant writer--and a woman no less--to be mesmerized by the sight of a young man being pummeled in the ring? But out of this passion--maybe obsession--comes a great American story about overlooked heroes, the nature of violence, hope, love and nearly everything else that matters" (Hanna Rosin, author of The End of Men ).

In this "dark and funny" ( The Washington Post ) work of literary nonfiction, a young female philosophy student insinuates herself into the lives of two cage fighters--one a young prodigy, the other an aging journeyman. Acclaimed essayist Kerry Howley follows, blow-by-blow, these men for three years through the bloody world of mixed martial arts as they starve themselves, break bones, fail their families and form new ones in the quest to rise from remote Midwestern fairgrounds to packed Vegas arenas.

With its penetrating intelligence and wry humor, Howley's "compulsively readable, informative, hilarious . . . [and] ferocious dissection of the essence of the spectator" exposes the profundities and absurdities of this American subculture. Welcome to the Octagon ( The New York Times Book Review ).