Author(s): Kathryn Scanlan

General Fiction

Kathryn Scanlan’s Kick the Latch vividly captures the arc of one woman’s life at the racetrack—the flat land and ramshackle backstretch; the bad feelings and friction; the winner’s circle and the racetrack bar; the fancy suits and fancy boots; and the “particular language” of “grooms, jockeys, trainers, racing secretaries, stewards, pony people, hotwalkers, everybody”—with economy and integrity. Based on transcribed interviews with Sonia, a horse trainer, the novel investigates form and authenticity in a feat of synthesis reminiscent of Charles Reznikoff’s Testimony. As Scanlan puts it, “I wanted to preserve—amplify, exaggerate—Sonia’s idiosyncratic speech, her bluntness, her flair as a storyteller. I arrived at what you could call a composite portrait of a self.” Whittled down with a fiercely singular artistry, Kick the Latch bangs out of the starting gate and carries the reader on a careening joyride around the inside track.

Matilda Bookshop Review

Kathryn Scanlan's Kick the Latch, based on interviews with Sonia, a horse trainer, is a masterclass in restraint and austerity and tells of a hard life lived working around horses, horse-racing and the racetrack. We learn about the big characters, the trainers’ secrets, and the challenges of being a woman in what is traditionally a male environment. This is a devastating, razor-sharp gem. JO