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  • Published: 17 November 2011
  • ISBN: 9781448128990
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 24

Blessed / The Fights (Storycuts)



Two short stories: a messy misadventure en route to a blood clinic brings about an epiphany; and a family visit to Knockemstiff doesn't help a new teetotaller's alcohol cravings.

In 'Blessed', a thief's career is cut short when he falls from a rooftop. Since the accident he has been subsisting on a disability cheque, a potent painkiller prescription and having his wife sell her blood.

In 'The Fights', Bobby has been off the sauce for five long months. On the advice of his Alcoholics Anonymous mentor, he pays his family a visit in Knockemstiff-where even the wood smoke reminds him of whiskey. While his father and brother amuse themselves by watching pre-recorded boxing and his mother mopes in the kitchen, the inertia infusing his old home threatens to take hold.

Part of the Storycuts series, these two short stories were previously published in the collection Knockemstiff.

  • Published: 17 November 2011
  • ISBN: 9781448128990
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 24

About the author

Donald Ray Pollock

After quitting school at seventeen, Donald Ray Pollock worked at Mead Paper Mill and as a truck driver in Chillicothe, Ohio. After thirty-two years employed as a labourer he enrolled at Ohio State University to study creative writing.

He is the author of two acclaimed books, the cult-classic short-story collection Knockemstiff, which went on to win the PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship, and the novel The Devil All The Time.

www.donaldraypollock.net

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