THE PROFESSIONAL: A NOVEL

Ostensibly the story of Eddie Brown, a quiet Bronx-bred pugilist with a shot at the middleweight title, The Professional is a boxing tale that barely sets foot in the ring, focusing instead on Brown’s battle-scarred manager and fellow fighters. Heinz trims away the descriptive fat with a lean style that almost reads like testimony, and his love of conversation leads The Professional to the bars and the locker rooms, where the underlying hopelessness of these characters hits the reader right in the gut.