Both Members of the Club — Adam Berlin

Billy Carlyle is a professional fighter starting to lose. His eyes cut too easily and his friends -- Gabriel, an aspiring actor, and Sam, an artist preparing for her first gallery show -- try to persuade Billy to leave the ring.

From the streets of Manhattan to the gyms of Paris, from struggling with hard pasts to harnessing the primal pull, Both Members of the Club is a story of friendship and ambition and violence set against the world of boxing, a place where bodies get tested and truths are exposed.

“This astonishingly personal and touching account of a trio of friends who have emerged from a parentless, family-less childhood to form a lifetime bond is reminiscent of the best of short fiction from the previous century. The narrator and narrative voice of the story is compelling and fascinating, and the two principal characters who round out this small circle are driven by such a power of love and mutual responsibility that it's moving in almost every way. It's a stunning story that resonates long after the last page is turned.” -- Clay Reynolds