Knuckle Boy

In Knuckle Boy, Dawn Newton presents nine stories in which protagonists grapple with wounded creatures —insects, animals, and humans—leaning heavily on backyard habitats and quotidian problems that nonetheless resonate. “The Derailment of the Mikado” presents the way in which an old train museum highlights transportation methods from the past and simultaneously serves a young child and his divorcing parents. In the title story “Knuckle Boy,” a family finds that their vacation home brings with it the attention of a young man in search of a new place to visit. In “Vital Activity,” an exterminator has an ambiguous encounter with a young housewife trying to solve a pest problem.