Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles. He met Liston's gaze but found it almost impossible to sustain eye contact. Soon it became an exercise in the control of fear. Sonny Liston gave Kid Dynamite the slightest hint of a smile and winked. In the build-up to a fight, Kid Dynamite's head swirls - with thoughts of his estranged father, his difficult relationship with his stepfather, the time he met his hero, and the sense that his own life is reaching a moment of change. A masterclass in tone, atmosphere and control, 'Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine' pays testimony to Thom Jones's unique talent for the short-story form.

Thom Jones, who died in 2016, was a National Book Award finalist, O. Henry Award winner, and the author of three story collections: The Pugilist at Rest, Cold Snap, and Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine. He received an MFA from the University of Iowa in 1973 and thereafter worked an array of jobs, from copywriter to janitor, until he was published for the first time, in The New Yorker, in his mid-forties. His stories went on to be published in other magazines such as Harper's, Esquire, Playboy, and Story and were reprinted numerous times in The Best American Short Stories. John Updike chose his story 'I Want to Live!' for The Best American Short Stories of the Century.