One fateful decision pushes a soldier from a life of stifling order to a life of freedom as doomed as it is thrilling

Macrae, a nice kid from a small town in Tennessee, joins the army only because the boys he grew up with enlisted before him. But when military life doesn’t suit the young dreamer, he goes AWOL, and his wanderlust leads him to New York and a partnership with a charismatic hustler named Charlie. Soon the toxic chemistry between the two makes trouble for both, and the stakes of their petty crimes increase. When the partners find themselves on the run and back in Tennessee, Macrae must come to grips with the man he’s become.

Engrossing and unforgettable, Save Me, Joe Louis is a powerful psychological study, and a tour de force by an American master at his best.

Madison Smartt Bell (b. 1957) is a critically acclaimed novelist. Over the last two decades he has produced more than a dozen novels and story collections, as well as numerous essays and reviews. His books have been finalists for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award among other honors. Born and raised outside of Nashville, Bell’s fiction is often set in the South, or in New York where he lived as a young writer. Bell and his wife, poet Elizabeth Spires, currently live in Baltimore, Maryland, where they are the codirectors of the writing program at Goucher College.