The Pugilist and the Sailor

The Pugilist and the Sailor follows 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. Unaware of the facts of the twins’ physicality, an epistolary relationship unfolds between Anka and Bruce, as he wrestles with broaching the topic of separation with Dougie. Dougie’s sole focus is the Heavyweight Amateur Boxing title as one half of “The Reuben Beast,” though he is trying to ignore his mysterious blackouts and severe headaches.

A character-driven story with an ensemble cast, told across multiple points of view and time periods, The Pugilist and the Sailor 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 novel is ultimately a consideration of family and finding your unique place in it, and in the world.

Nadia Ragbar lives in Toronto with her partner and son. Her short fiction has appeared in Broken Pencil and This Magazine, among other outlets. Her flash fiction appeared in The Unpublished City, an anthology curated by Dionne Brand, which was shortlisted for the 2018 Toronto Book Award. The Pugilist and the Sailor is her first novel.

“This book is so strangely moving and truly funny and sad and beautiful. An impressive debut from a writer already in possession of a unique voice.”—Miriam Toews

“Bruce and Dougie are conjoined twins—one a fiery boxer, the other a dreamy bookkeeper. Inseparable by birth but diverging in desire, they share a body, a home, and a tangled history of longing—for solitude, for love, for a different kind of life. A deeply intimate, character-driven novel about family, yearning, and the aching complexity of connection, The Pugilist and the Sailor is a story of bodies that defy definition, and the invisible lines that bind us—through time, through blood, and through the stories we carry.”—Carrianne Leung, author of That Time I Loved You and The Wondrous Woo

“You love your brother? Try sharing a limb with him. In one of the most tender and affecting debut novels you’re likely to read this year, The Pugilist and the Sailor delves into the lives of a pair of 30-something-year-old conjoined Torontonian twins. Guyanese-Canadian Ragbar pulls off something so convincing and exquisitely-judged in her portrayals of boxing aficionado Dougie and stoic, would-be seafarer Bruce that it’s disappointing to concede they aren’t actual people. The novel itself is an accomplished study in dissecting parallel, yoked lives, and of the pressures of self-perception when one exists, always, within the arm span of a nigh-unbearable intimacy. During shadow boxing, ‘in each of the twins’ secret hearts, separate impulses were percolating as they punched combinations at their reflections.’ It would be impossible not to be moved, profoundly altered even, by this beautifully—necessarily—strange story.”—Shivanee Ramlochan, Caribbean Beat

“While Ragbar’s well-developed plot about conjoined twins and their shared—yet extremely different—lives opens a new door in fiction, The Pugilist and the Sailor is also a keen, microscopic examination of grief in all of its facets. […] The Pugilist and the Sailor also stands out because of its immense character development. Even Dougie and Bruce’s parents, who are, in a sense, minor characters, receive their own spotlights. The novel’s portrayal of their mother, Jane, and her experiences with grief and being a mother to conjoined twins is significant. These portrayals combine with the alternating chapters telling each character’s story. This structure creates emotional emphasis, allowing each character to have and to share their moments of joy, grief, and confusion. This type of character development is important, especially in regards to Dougie and Bruce. Ragbar captures the characters’ tug-of-war emotions and perceptions acutely and vividly.”—Nicole Yurcaba, the temz review

“Joining half a dozen plot lines and even more characters, The Pugilist and the Sailor bursts with whimsy and humanity. Ragbar treats even the briefest character appearances with care. The novel can meander, but its breadth is largely its strength.”—Catherine Marcotte, Literary Review of Canada

“An accomplished debut novel with rich characterization and a compelling narrative voice. Recommended.”—Lucy E.M. Black, The Miramichi Reader

“A beautiful treatise on (dis)connection.”—Kerry Claire