The Fighter

The Fighter tells the story of Henry Nissen, a champion boxer from Amess Street in working-class Carlton who rose through the ranks to battle some of the world's best in the 1970s.

Today, Henry works on the Melbourne docks, loading and unloading cargo, taking shifts as they come. His true calling, however, lies on the streets. He frequents police stations and courts, providing character statements and support, striving to offer the disaffected another chance. All the while, haunting his memories is the spectre of another fighter—his mother—and her heartbreaking descent into madness.

The Fighter is a moving and poetic portrayal of a compassionate man and offers a glimpse into the unnoticed recesses of Melbourne.

Arnold Zable is a writer who turns the unnoticed and the overlooked into something fine and lustrous." – Courier-Mail

Arnold Zable is a long-distance athlete among novelists, and his command of his material is superb... Years of reflection and his own life experiences have contributed to the mastery with which Zable explores the themes of displacement, loss, nostalgia, and homecoming in all of his books." – Canberra Times