Venero Armanno

Charlie Smoke is living out his early retirement from the boxing ring as a bricklayer. It is the mid-1970s and he believes his best days are behind him. He's lost his wife and daughter to his questionable past, but when he meets Holly Banks and her teenage son, Ricky, he has a chance to do things differently. As an unlikely friendship develops with Ricky, Charlie is unwittingly pulled back into the gambling underworld he thought he'd left behind. In order to make a new future, first he must help settle some old scores. Burning Down is a searing new novel from acclaimed storyteller Venero Armanno about family, regret, love and the promise of salvation.

Burning Down

Abby N. Lewis

This is the first of Armanno's books that I've encountered. What I really loved about it was how unique the story felt. I have a habit of trying to think of books similar to the one I'm reading while I'm reading it (a habit that comes from internships at publishing houses), but I could not think of any book that was even remotely like this one. 

I adore books that feature older protagonists, simply because the publishing world seems to be oversaturated with YA books (and movies) at the moment, and it's a nice relief to hear about the problems and adventures of people from older generations. Charlie Smoke is a retired boxer nursing a shoulder injury and working a bricklaying job to pass the time. He also trains a group of neighborhood kids in boxing so that they will be able to protect themselves, since their neck of the woods is far from the safest one out there. He's been trying to reconnect with his daughter ever since his estranged wife's funeral, but she's made it clear she wants nothing to do with him; he takes a job rebuilding a woman's brick gate and finds himself getting closer to her and her family than he ever imagined.

I fell in love with Charlie's character, and with this book. I am not a fan of boxing or betting or the thug life, and this book contains all of those things--things I thought I had no interest in--but I still loved it. Armanno's boxing scenes are vivid and succinct, his narrative is in a minimalist style but still so full of heart, and his characters are unforgettable. I know I'll remember Charlie for years.

Burning Down

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