120,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

🌸 Our Spring Sale is here! Save on Books, Toys, & Puzzles! With overnight NZ-wide delivery 🎉

Fight Night

'A Gem: humour and hope in the face of suffering' Observer
By Miriam Toews
0.0 (0 reviews)
4.03 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating. ( 21,475 ratings, 3,165 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Fight Night by Miriam Toews is a heartfelt novel exploring the dynamic relationship between three generations of women bound by resilience and wit. The story is narrated by nine-year-old Swiv, who, alongside her fiery grandmother Elvira and her pregnant mother, navigates life's challenges with humour and love. The novel delves into themes of family, feminism, and the indomitable spirit of women facing adversity.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock

Sorry, we're currently out of stock of Fight Night. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this novel if you're drawn to stories that weave humour and heartbreak into a touching family dynamic. With vivid characterisation and powerful emotional depth, it follows the bond between a spirited grandmother and her granddaughter, offering a heartfelt exploration of life's ups and downs. Perfect for those who appreciate narratives filled with warmth and resilience.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Poignant, hilarious and deeply moving, Fight Night is a girl's love letter to the women raising her and a tribute to one family's fighting spirit.

Poignant, hilarious and deeply moving, Fight Night is a girl's love letter to the women raising her and a tribute to one family's fighting spirit.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

'Sets standards for grandmotherly swearing and outspokenness I can never hope to match. Go Grandma Elvira!' - MARGARET ATWOOD

You are a small thing, and you must learn to fight.

Swiv has taken her grandmother's advice too literally. Now she's at home, suspended from school. Mum is pregnant and preoccupied – and so Swiv is in the older woman's charge, receiving a very different form of education from a teacher with a style all her own.

Grandma likes her stories fast, troublesome, and funny. She's known the very worst that life can throw at you – and has met it every time with a wild, unnamable spirit, fighting for joy and independence every step of the way. But will maths lessons based on Amish jigsaws and classes on How to Dig a Winter Grave inspire the same fire in Swiv, and ensure it never goes out?

Time is running short. Grandma's health is failing, the baby is on the way, as a family of three extraordinary women prepare to face life's great changes together.

Fight Night is glorious: funny and sad and beautifully written.' - SARAH MOSS

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Fight Night by Miriam Toews is praised for its wicked humour and fearless honesty. It has been described as a deeply emotional read, with the potential to bring tears to readers’ eyes. Additionally, it is celebrated as a tribute to the strength and wisdom of the matriarchal figures in our lives.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780571370726

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 02 June 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Faber & Faber

Edition: Export - Airside ed

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 19.0mm

Width: 135.0mm

Height: 216.0mm

Weight: 283g

Pages: 272

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Miriam Toews

About the Author

Miriam Toews is the author of six bestselling novels: Summer of My Amazing Luck, A Boy of Good Breeding, A Complicated Kindness, The Flying Troutmans, Irma Voth, and All My Puny Sorrows, and one work of non-fiction, Swing Low: A Life. She is a winner of the Governor General's Award for Fiction, the Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and the Writers Trust Marian Engel/ Timothy Findley Award. She lives in Toronto.

Also by Miriam Toews

View all
  • A Complicated Kindness
    We're Mennonites. As far as I know, we are the most embarrassing sub-sect of people to belong to if you're a teenager. Sixteen-year-old Nomi Nickel longs to hang out with Lou Reed and Marianne Faithfull in New York City's East Village. Instead, she's trapped in East Village, Manitoba: a town with no train station, no bar, and where job prospects...
    By Miriam Toews
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Women Talking
    'Don't miss this one! This amazing, sad, shocking, but touching novel, based on a real-life event, could be right out of The Handmaid's Tale.' - Margaret Atwood Between 2005 and 2009, in a remote religious Mennonite colony, over a hundred girls and women were knocked unconscious and raped, often repeatedly, by what many thought were ghosts or demons, as a...
    By Miriam Toews
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Flying Troutmans
    Meet the Troutmans. Hattie is living in Paris, city of romance, but has just been dumped by her boyfriend. Min, her sister back in Canada, is going through a particularly dark period. And Min's two kids, Logan and Thebes, are not talking and talking way too much, respectively. When Hattie receives a phone call from eleven-year-old Thebes, begging her to...
    By Miriam Toews
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Fight Night
    INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 'Go Grandma Elvira!' - Margaret Atwood 'Wickedly funny and fearlessly honest.' - The New Yorker 'Glorious.' - Sarah Moss You are a small thing, and you must learn to fight. Swiv has taken this advice too literally. Now she's suspended from school, in the care of her foul-mouthed, hilarious grandmother. Mom...
    By Miriam Toews
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Women Talking
    Between 2005 and 2009, in a remote religious Mennonite colony, over a hundred girls and women were knocked unconscious and raped, often repeatedly, by what many thought were ghosts or demons, as a punishment for their sins. As the women tentatively began to share the details of the attacks—waking up sore and bleeding and not understanding why—their stories were chalked...
    By Miriam Toews
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • All My Puny Sorrows
    Shortlisted for the Folio Prize 2015 Shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize 2015 Sunday Times Top Choice Summer Read Elf and Yoli are two smart, loving sisters. Elf is a world-renowned pianist, glamorous, wealthy, happily married: she wants to die. Yoli is divorced, broke, sleeping with the wrong men: she desperately wants to keep her older sister alive. When Elf's...
    By Miriam Toews
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • A Truce That Is Not Peace
    A Truce That Is Not Peace
    THE NUMBER ONE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 2025 ‘The best memoir you will read all year’ — NICK HORNBY ‘A triumph – a meditation on writing, suicide, guilt and silence’ — GUARDIAN ‘Curious and idiosyncratic and enjoyable’ — ZADIE SMITH ‘Darkly moving and heart-wrenchingly funny’ — MARIE CLAIRE A book of the year...
    By Miriam Toews
    Hardback
    $4500
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • A Truce That Is Not Peace
    Pre-order
    A Truce That Is Not Peace
    THE NUMBER ONE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 2025 ‘The best memoir you will read all year’ — NICK HORNBY ‘A triumphant meditation on loss, literature and the unspoken’ — GUARDIAN ‘Curious and idiosyncratic and enjoyable’ — ZADIE SMITH ‘Darkly moving and heart-wrenchingly funny’ — MARIE CLAIRE The internationally bestselling author of Women Talking...
    By Miriam Toews
    Paperback
    $2799
    Pre-order
    Out 17 Nov 2026
  • A Truce That Is Not Peace
    THE NUMBER ONE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 'The best memoir you will read all year' — Nick Hornby 'A triumph – a meditation on writing, suicide, guilt and silence' — The Guardian 'A grief memoir in the vein of Joan Didion’s Blue Nights' — New York Times 'This is memoir perfection … I adored it' — Cariad Lloyd The internationally bestselling author...
    By Miriam Toews
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from General Fiction

View all
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people — but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    By Alison Espach
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Fourth Wing
    THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NUMBER ONE GLOBAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON! DON'T MISS OUT ON THE SERIES THAT EVERYONE CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT: 'This book contains an addictive, drug-like essence that will make you relinquish all responsibility until the very last word. Do not say I didn't warn you' Glamour 'I didn't sleep, I didn't eat, and when I finished, I...
    By Rebecca Yarros
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Iron Flame
    The instant number one Sunday Times bestseller and thrilling sequel to the global phenomenon, Fourth Wing! DON'T BE THE LAST TO DISCOVER THE SERIES THAT EVERYONE CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT: 'Yarros is the true inheritor of Harry Potter and inspires Hunger Games levels of devotion' Guardian 'Fear not, levels of fighting, rebelliousness and all-round sexiness are still sky-high' Daily Mail...
    By Rebecca Yarros
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Dylan's Pick Dylan's Pick
    Theo of Golden
    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...
    By Allen Levi
    Paperback
    $2899
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Lizzy's Pick Lizzy's Pick
    Yesteryear
    A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE — Nita Prose WICKEDLY FUNNY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND FRIGHTENINGLY PERCEPTIVE — Abigail Dean INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE — Ashley Audrain SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS — Clare Mackintosh The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale — Hannah Deitch My name was Natalie Heller...
    By Caro Claire Burke
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Carl's Doomsday Scenario
    Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They've already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Hardback
    $4699
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses
    The first instalment of the GLOBAL PHENOMENON and TikTok sensation, from multi-million selling and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas. Maas has established herself as a fantasy fiction titan – Time Harry Potter magic, Taylor Swift sass, Fifty Shades-level athleticism – The Sunday Times With bits of Buffy, Game of Thrones and Outlander, this is a glorious series...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook
    Carl and Princess Donut have to team up with other contestants to not just survive, but to solve a deadly puzzle in this third, mind-twisting novel in the addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to this print edition! Carl and Donut have survived so far, but this fourth level is unlike anything they could imagine. The...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Hardback
    $4700
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl
    The apocalypse will be televised! Welcome to the first book in the wildly popular and addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman-now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition! You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what's worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Carl's Doomsday Scenario
    New Release
    Carl's Doomsday Scenario
    Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl series—now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition. Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They've already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever feline...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • A Court of Silver Flames
    The latest instalment of the GLOBAL PHENOMENON, romantic fantasy epic and TikTok sensation, ACOTAR. From multi-million and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas. Maas has established herself as a fantasy fiction titan - Time Think Game of Thrones meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a drizzle of E.L. James – Telegraph Spiced with slick plotting and atmospheric world-building...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Kneel Before Me
    New Release
    Kneel Before Me
    Daphne never meant to want him - the monster who could destroy her... and the only one who never would. Now they're both caught between Their duties and their love. Daphne Verus never planned to compete for the prince. Now she's expected to trade the safety of her village for the caves beneath the mountain and be trained by Kronos...
    By Lindsay Straube
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

General Fiction lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!

The Latest at Book Hero

View all