Elegiac and lyrical, Bruiser is the story of a love between two men wary of emotional commitment. Adrian fends for himself as a waiter, boxer and hustler until he meets Paul, a lonely British expatriate old enough to be his father. Rejecting their lives in Chicago, they embark together on a road trip to Brazil. On the journey, they both find that they cannot abandon the fear of intimacy. Richard House's first novel is a sensual portrayal of lives lived on the margins.