{"product_id":"kick-the-latch-kathryn-scanlan","title":"Kick the Latch: Kathryn Scanlan","description":"Shortlisted for the Gordon Burns Prize 2023\/2024  Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book Award 2023 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. ‘A chiselled little gem . . . about a horse trainer called Sonia and told in her unforgettably downbeat voice. Such poise and economy – I can’t remember a novel about work that’s impressed me so.’ Tim Winton, Books of the Year, Sydney Morning Herald  ‘Utterly fresh, shimmery as a dragonfly . . . Ridiculously good.’ Kerri n� Dochartaigh  ‘Kick the Latch performs the trick of turning a life, with its practicalities and speed, into art, and does so with particular charm, will, and intensity.’ Lucie Elven","brand":"Daunt Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40903077920853,"sku":"9781914198250N","price":11.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2481\/5790\/files\/a105da9b-5a7d-400e-b6fb-5aef4aa93816.jpg?v=1727255912","url":"https:\/\/smeikalbooks.co.uk\/en-us\/products\/kick-the-latch-kathryn-scanlan","provider":"smeikalbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}