Fists Made Loud is Donald Ray Pollock's Knockemstiff crossed with Andre Dubus' story "Killings" from Finding a Girl in America mixed with an episode of The Wire...of a sort.

Set in present day Boston, Fists Made Loud explores the drama of modern American urban life, in which the very rich are catered to by the poor, in which race relations flare, where guns are prevalent and considered toys, and where the desire to blame others trumps the need to understand them. These forces and more weigh upon the characters in this short, single-narrative novel, hurtling them towards an irrevocable conclusion.