<div>"<I>Thrown</I> is Kerry Howley's masterful debut. A work of rigorous nonfiction that's sure to be branded experimental, but that's as involving and page-turning as any book I've read in a while."<br>?Gary Shteyngart<br><BR>"Who can explain what draws a young brilliant writer?and a woman no less?to be mesmerized by the sight of a young man being pummeled in the ring? But out of this passion?maybe obsession?comes a great American story about overlooked heroes, the nature of violence, hope, love and nearly everything else that matters."<br>?Hanna Rosin, author of <I>The End of Men</I><br><BR>In this darkly funny work of literary nonfiction, a bookish young woman insinuates herself into the lives of two cage fighters?one a young prodigy, the other an aging journeyman. Acclaimed essayist Kerry Howley follows these men for three years through the bloody world of mixed martial arts as they starve themselves, break bones, fail their families and form new ones in the quest to rise from remote Midwestern fairgrounds to packed Vegas arenas. With penetrating intelligence and wry humor, Howley exposes the profundities and absurdities of this American subculture.<br><BR><B>Kerry Howley</B>'s work has appeared in <I>The Paris Review</I>, <I>New York Times Magazine</I>, the <I>Atlantic</I>, <I>Wall Street Journal</I>, <I>Slate</I>, and frequently in <I>Bookforum</I>. She holds an MFA from the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program. <p><BR></div>