Once You Break a Knuckle: Stories (Paperback)

D.W. Wilson's stories have a wonderfully raw, vernacular energy which carries the reader through some dark and spitefully funny moments. This is a cracking read - Jon McGregor

Combining taut, highly economical observations of men in their day to day lives with real tenderness and a restrained lyricism about the natural world ... affecting stories about men and women ... beautiful ... A massive achievement - John Burnside, Guardian

'The Dead Roads' was the stand-out winner of the 2011 BBC Short Story Award. My worry was that it might also be the stand-out story in this debut collection, but no - the standard is consistently, astonishingly high throughout. There are echoes of Wells Tower and Russell Banks, but Wilson's voice is distinctive, confident and completely enthralling - Geoff Dyer

Spiky, gritty short stories ... Wilson's world is dangerous and unpredictable, and his writing has a terrific, understated force - Kate Saunders, The Times

This is one of the finest pieces of debut fiction I've encountered in the last few years, and with it DW Wilson takes his place with other North American writers such as David Vann and Daniel Woodrell in eking out savage grace and empathy through muscular prose and the desperate circumstances of his characters ... This is a really exceptional debut, and an emphatic calling card from a genuine talent. I can't wait to read what he writes next - Doug Johnstone, Sunday Herald

Robust, musical, slyly funny, and shining a fearless light into the yearning male heart, these powerful stories should be required reading for any curious females of the species - Bill Glaston

Superb debut collection of stories from the winner of the BBC national short story award - Sunday Times ‘Must Reads’

Macho Mounties, Boyish Boyz + Beers, Tough Times. + good writing - Margaret Atwood, Twitter

There are indeed echoes of Richard Ford and Raymond Carver here - most strikingly Carver, in content certainly - but Wilson's description and dialogue also attain the same lean, elemental punch, a total and exhilarating exclusion of the extraneous - Globe and Mail

This is one of the finest pieces of debut fiction I've encountered in the last few years, and with it DW Wilson takes his place with other North American writers such as David Vann and Daniel Woodrell in eking out savage grace and empathy through muscular prose and the desperate circumstances of his characters ... This is a really exceptional debut, and an emphatic calling card from a genuine talent. I can't wait to read what he writes next - Doug Johnstone, Sunday Herald

D. W. Wilson's stories have echoes of the great Raymond Carver in their tough and lonely lyricism - Daily Telegraph

Able to wheedle out the hidden depths of intimacy that lurk beneath the storms of testosterone ... Wilson leaves an unforgettable mark in his sublimely judged depiction of boys and men of all ages tussling with one another in brawling, lip-splitting tenderness - Sunday Times

D. W. Wilson's stories - fuelled by tough, streetwise prose - are alight with tension, wisdom and wit - Joe Dunthorne