Soft Tissue Damage tells the story of author ANNA WHITWHAM’S lifelong interest in boxing manifesting itself in the physical act of getting into the ring to fight. From her first tentative training sessions through bruising sparring and building up to a full-blooded fight, Whitwham charts the transformative impact the sport—and all its complicated implications—has on her during a profoundly difficult period dealing with the grief of losing her mother to cancer. Tender, insightful, honest and full of startling and original thought, this is a book that fully examines what the human body is both capable and incapable of, a book that examines what the human body truly means in its capacity for sexuality and violence, love and death, strength and vulnerability.

'A beautiful, bold exploration of pleasure and pain. Whitwham intertwines her twin subjects of boxing and grief with magnetic honesty. This is prose that glints with truth.' —Nikita Lalwani (author of You People)

'Anna Whitwham's Soft Tissue Damage is a beautifully-written and moving account of how she healed herself in the brutal world of boxing. It is also a compelling, visceral and tender book about grief and loss, life and death, identity and sexuality, written by a daughter, a mother and an aspiring fighter.' —Donald McRae (author of The Last Bell: Life, Death and Boxing)

Rough Trade Books, 2025,