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Rita Bullwinkel's debut novel, Knockout, follows the stories of eight young female boxers who travel from different parts of the United States to Reno, Nevada, for a two-day junior boxing championship. Each chapter of the novel covers one match, from the quarterfinals to the unexpectedly crowded finals. The girls' pasts intertwine with their futures in the narrative, with each boxing match serving as the intersection; thanks to the author's exceptionally precise language, refined narrative style, and centrifugal imagination, the depiction of the ruthless boxing competition gradually transforms into a powerful parable about girls on the threshold of adulthood and their struggles with the world around them.

When reading the novel, it is not difficult to understand why it has aroused such enthusiasm among literary critics and readers alike – and one readily agrees with reviewers who, among other things, claim that "Bulwinkell's novel is immensely powerful and fresh; whatever the author focuses her attention on literally lights up" (New York Times); that it is "an elegant meditation on physical struggle... imbued with metaphors and refined images that poetically freeze time in every scene: a lot can happen in eight two-minute rounds of boxing" (Washington Post); that The Knockout is "brilliant, unpredictable prose" (San Francisco Chronicle) that "is unlike any other, yet works perfectly and leaves an indelible impression" (Guardian)