Kathryn Scanlan

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Kick the Latch

'A tough, beautiful novel. - Guardian

About one womans fine, hard life at the racetrack, Kick the Latch with its ruthless concision and artful mysteries is lightning in a bottle.

Kathryn Scanlans Kick the Latch vividly captures the arc of one womans life at the racetrack the flat land and ramshackle backstretch; the bad feelings and friction; the winners 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 Reznikoffs Testimony. As Scanlan puts it, I wanted to preserve amplify, exaggerate Sonias 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 revelation in its unadorned, unromantic, plain power. - Andrew McMillan

'A series of taut, electrifying vignettes . . . by turns exultant and brutal. - LA Review of Books