{"id":16163,"date":"2025-09-11T15:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T15:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/16163\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T15:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T15:21:08","slug":"49th-shelf-the-pugilist-and-the-sailor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/16163\/","title":{"rendered":"49th Shelf: The Pugilist And The Sailor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-87113 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-10-at-9.49.23\u202fpm-e1757602779591.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"578\"\/><\/p>\n<p>by (author)\u00a0<a title=\"View more Nadia Ragbar books\" href=\"https:\/\/49thshelf.com\/Contributors\/R\/Ragbar-Nadia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Nadia Ragbar<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Pugilist and the Sailor\u00a0follows conjoined twins, Bruce and Dougie. Dougie is an ambitious amateur boxer, having dragged his brother into the ring since childhood. Bruce is a bookkeeper who has become smitten with Anka.<\/p>\n<p>Unaware of the facts of the twins\u2019 physicality an epistolary relationship unfolds between Anka and Bruce, as he wrestles with broaching the topic of separation with Dougie.<\/p>\n<p>Dougie\u2019s sole focus is the Heavyweight Amateur Boxing title as one half of \u201cThe Reuben Beast,\u201d though he is trying to ignore his mysterious blackouts and severe headaches.<\/p>\n<p>Anka is, specifically, navigating through her grief over her parents\u2019 deaths, but also, generally, reconciling her understanding of being a first-generation Canadian without her Guyanese parents as an anchor.<\/p>\n<p>A character-driven story with an ensemble cast, told across multiple points of view and time periods, examines the unique relationships between conjoined brothers, parents, crushes, and unexpected mentors. A story about the intertwined nature of longing and belonging, compromise and connection, this is ultimately a consideration of family and finding your unique place in it, and in the world.<\/p>\n<p>About The Author<br \/><a class=\"more-v2\" href=\"https:\/\/49thshelf.com\/Contributors\/R\/Ragbar-Nadia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Nadia Ragbar\u2019s profile page<\/a><\/p>\n<p>To purchase The Pugilist And The Sailor:<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigo.ca\/en-ca\/the-pugilist-and-the-sailor\/9781778430718.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Indigo \u2013 Click here to buy\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/dp\/1778430716?tag=canadibooks0f-20&amp;linkCode=osi&amp;th=1&amp;psc=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Amazon \u2013 Click here to buy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by (author)\u00a0Nadia Ragbar The Pugilist and the Sailor\u00a0follows conjoined twins, Bruce and Dougie. Dougie is an ambitious amateur&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-16163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}