The Fighter A True Story

Author: Arnold Zable

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $27.99 AUD
  • : 9781925355062
  • : Text Publishing Company
  • : Text Publishing Company
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  • : 0.284
  • : May 2016
  • : 234mm X 153mm
  • : Australia
  • : 27.99
  • : May 2016
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  • :
  • : books

Special Fields

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  • :
  • : Arnold Zable
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  • : Paperback
  • :
  • : 208
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Barcode 9781925355062
9781925355062

Description

So it’s come to this. Sixty-seven years old and he labours on the docks. Cropped grey-white beard, ex-boxer’s pug nose, he is wiry, rotund and short. His strength is sensed rather than seen, belied by age and excess weight. Vigour is the word. Henry Nissen exudes vigour. His life force is strong. It animates his gestures, powers his determined little walk.


Henry Nissen was a champion boxer, the boy from Amess Street in working-class Carlton who fought his way up to beat some of the world’s best in the 1970s. Now, he works on the Melbourne docks, loading and unloading, taking shifts as they come up. But his real work is on the streets. He’s in and out of police stations and courts giving character statements and providing support, working to give the disaffected another chance.


And all the while, in the background is the memory of another fighter, his mother—and her devastating decline into madness.


The Fighter is a moving and poetic portrait of a compassionate man, but also a window onto the unnoticed recesses of Melbourne.

Author description

Arnold Zable is a highly acclaimed novelist, storyteller, educator and human rights advocate. His books include Jewels and Ashes, The Fig Tree, Cafe Scheherazade, Scraps of Heaven, Sea of Many Returns and Violin Lessons. He lives in Melbourne.