PET, PET, SLAP: a pillow mystery
In stores now!
Rocky meets Elmore Leonard meets Miranda July as Pillow Wilson, a past-his-prime boxer, trains for his last title shot. Shenanigans ensue. A prequel to the Giller Prize Longlisted novel Pillow!
Having recently undergone an ethical awakening, Pillow has converted to veganism and is in the middle of trying to rehome his menagerie of exotic pets (including Jersey Joe the sloth and Rigoberto the shark) in humane animal shelters. His roommate, Sherlock Holmes, has recently faked his own death by waterfall, and has now gone incognito and is Pillow’s in-house doping expert.
The thing is, Pillow doesn’t feel all that motivated to train for his next big fight, and he’s further distracted from his training when his car and pet shark mysteriously disappear. Luckily, Sherlock is a master of deduction. What follows is part underdog sports story, part work of Neozoological Surrealism, and part existential mystery novel.
REVIEWS AND A VIDEO OF ME TALKING TO THE GREAT ZSUZSI GARTNER!
"In the hands of a less capable writer this unlikely and erratic combination of literary and stock characters and genre tropes from detective, noir, and underdog sports stories would likely prove too complex to navigate and depict with any sense of cohesion. Fortunately, Battershill (Marry, Bang, Kill) demonstrates the skill required to weave these various strands together in a compelling and compulsively readable way." – Logan Macnair, The British Columbia Review
"Pillow, Battershill’s charming anti-hero, remains the heart and soul of Pet, Pet, Slap. Impulsive, supremely unfiltered, and surprisingly gentle, he keeps your eye on the page." – Brett Josef Grubisic, The Vancouver Sun