The Knockout Queen

"Full of verve... Revelatory." —Los Angeles Times

A dazzling & darkly comic novel of love, violence, & friendship in the California suburbs

Bunny Lampert is the princess of North Shore⁠—beautiful, tall, blond, with a rich real-estate-developer father & a swimming pool in her backyard. Michael⁠⁠—with a ponytail down his back and a septum piercing⁠—lives with his aunt in the cramped stucco cottage next door. When Bunny catches Michael smoking in her yard, he discovers that her life is not as perfect as it seems. 

At six foot three, Bunny towers over their classmates. Even as she dreams of standing out and competing in the Olympics, she is desperate to fit in, to seem normal, and to get a boyfriend, all while hiding her father's escalating alcoholism. Michael has secrets of his own. At home & at school Michael pretends to be straight, but at night he tries to understand himself by meeting men online for anonymous encounters that both thrill & scare him. 

When Michael falls in love for the first time, a vicious strain of gossip circulates & a terrible, brutal act becomes the defining feature of both his & Bunny's futures⁠⁠—and of their friendship. With storytelling as intoxicating as it is intelligent, Rufi Thorpe has created a tragic & unflinching portrait of identity, a fascinating examination of our struggles to exist in our bodies, & an excruciatingly beautiful story of two humans aching for connection.

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RUFI THORPE is the author of The Knockout Queen, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award; Dear Fang, with Love; and The Girls from Corona del Mar, which was long-listed for the International Dylan Thomas Prize & the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize. A native of California, she currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband & two sons.