'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 has lost his wife and his daughter Sissy to his questionable past. When he meets Holly Banks and her teenage son Ricky, he has the chance to do things differently this time around.
'As an unlikely friendship develops with Ricky, Charlie is unwittingly pulled back into the gambling underworld he thought he had left behind. In order to make a new future, first he must 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.'
Source: Publication summary
Dedication: To Carmelo, never a boxer but always a fighter.
'Venero Armanno writes with empathy about boys growing up, youths in love, adult men in extended families and lone male sojourners.' (Introduction)
'Venero Armanno writes with empathy about boys growing up, youths in love, adult men in extended families and lone male sojourners.' (Introduction)