Pet, Pet, Slap

Rocky meets Elmore Leonard meets Miranda July as Pillow Wilson, a past-his-prime boxer, trains for his last title shot. Shenanigans ensue.Boxer Pillow Fist Pete Wilson should be preparing for his big comeback fight. But, having recently undergone an ethical awakening, the new vegan is busy trying to find humane new homes for his menagerie of exotic pets (including Jersey Joe the sloth and Rigoberto the shark). His roommate, Sherlock Holmes, who faked his own death by waterfall, is now Pillows in-house doping expert.Pillow just cant get motivated to train, and hes further distracted from his push-ups when both his car and Rigoberto mysteriously disappear. Luckily, Sherlock is a master of deduction. What follows is part underdog sports story, part work of neozoological surrealism, and part existential mystery novel.Reckless, desperate, and achingly human, Battershill remains funnier than anyone else on your shelf. Andrew F. Sullivan, author ofThe MarigoldThe adventures of Battershills returning protagonist Pillow are witty and occasionally absurd, but the story never trips on ironies. Battershill twines the humanity of pulp noir with the unsettling play of surrealism to build a world in which pet sloths, Sherlock Holmes, and skilled drug pushers all seem to have found their ideal home. Naben Ruthnum, author ofA Hero of Our TimePillow Wilson is one of my favourite characters in CanLit, and he is in fine form inPet, Pet, Slap, a deeply funny, inventive, bizarre, heartbreaker of a book. Andrew Battershill not only writes with that magical alchemy of humour and pathos that most writers only wish they could pull off, but he somehow also balances surrealism and profound humanity in a way Im sure Ill spend the rest of my life trying to figure out. I havent had this much fun reading in a long, long time. Amy Jones, author ofPebble & Dove