“David Cohen has taken an important piece of social history and unpacked it in a highly imaginative way. It is completely engrossing.”

— Lloyd Jones, Man Booker prize shortlister

“As well as a case to put, Cohen has a barrow to push. Make that a bag to punch, since in addition to telling us a lot about the popular music of the times – which was indeed important to the boys’ lives and always has been to his – he tells us much more about the boxers of the times. Even the epigraph, from Corinthians 1, deals with pugilism. So we get pumped-up passages on Joe Frazier v Muhammed Ali, sustained and sometimes strained links to Ali’s rise and reel (and of course he did come to the Hutt in 1979), comparisons between the end of Mike Tyson’s reign and the end of Epuni, portraits of fighters or trainers associated with the Home. 

“Cohen’s skills, here and elsewhere, often make me wish that journalism were less ephemeral. He moves adroitly between close-up and overview. He’s pungent and plain and precise.”

— David Hill, NZ Review of Books