FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST FOR THE CENTER FOR
FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE READS OF SUMMER 2024 Named a Best
Book of 2024 by The New York Times Book Review NPR Time Elle Vulture Lit Hub and The
Guardian “Make room American fiction for a meaningful new voice.” —Dwight Garner The New
York Times Book Review An electrifying debut novel from an “unusually gifted writer” (Lorrie
Moore) about the radical intimacy of physical competition An unexpected tragedy at a community
pool. A family’s unrelenting expectation of victory. The desire to gain or lose control to
make time speed up or stop to be frighteningly undeniably good at something. Each of the
eight teenage girl boxers in this blistering debut novel has her own reasons for the sacrifices
she has made to come to Reno Nevada to compete to be named the best in the country. Through a
series of face-offs that are raw ecstatic and punctuated by flashes of humor and tenderness
prizewinning writer Rita Bullwinkel animates the competitors’ pasts and futures as they summon
the emotion imagination and force of will required to win. Frenetic surprising and
strikingly original Headshot is a portrait of the desire envy perfectionism madness and
sheer physical pleasure that motivate young women to fight—even and perhaps especially when
no one else is watching.
