Once You Break a Knuckle

By D.W. Wilson

2011

First Published

3.62

Average Rating

251

Number of Pages

7H39M

Audio Length

Set in the remote Kootenay Valley in western Canada, Once You Break a Knuckle tells stories of good people doing bad two bullied adolescents sabotage a rope swing, resulting in another boy’s death; a heartbroken young man refuses to warn his best friend about an approaching car; sons challenge fathers and break taboos. Crackling with tension and propelled by jagged, cutting dialogue, the stories interconnect and reveal to us how our best intentions are doomed to fail or injure, how our loves can fall short or mislead us, how even friendship–especially friendship–can be something dangerously temporary. Wilson’s world is always dangerous, barbed with violence and the possibility of betrayal. And yet, in this small, finely-wrought universe, a dogged, wry dignity is usually enough to see us through. An intoxicating alloy of adrenaline and the kind of vulnerability we would all admit to if we were honest, Once You Break a Knuckle is about the courage it takes just to make it through the day.

Avg Rating

3.62

Number of Ratings

311

5 STARS

19%

4 STARS

42%

3 STARS

25%

2 STARS

12%

1 STARS

goodreads

Author

D.W. Wilson

Author · 3 books

I am the author of two books, Ballistics and Once You Break a Knuckle, as well as a host of other separately published stories and essays, some of which have won prizes like BBC Short Story Award, the CBC Canada Writes Story Prize, and the Manchester Fiction Prize. That's the bones of my bio, same one you'll find on other websites or in the sleeves of my two books. I love books but I also love nerd stuff. I'm happy to dump dozens of hours into video game in a single sitting and I get unacceptably excited waiting for the latest superhero flick to start. I once put 600 hours into building a fibreglass Iron Man suit for my wife for Halloween (it had light-up eyes) which she danced to the end of love late into the night. I think of this as an outlet for unspent or untapped creative energy; I spend so much time at a desk, in front of a screen, that it is sometimes nice to work with my hands, even if I'm working on soldering an LED into a replica arc reactor. I grew up in the Kootenays and some part of the small town boy remains. I can chop lumber if under duress. I wish I owned a truck.