Tired of Winning
Richard Cooke

Polarised, enraged and spiritually bereft, America under Donald Trump seems to be on the brink of failure.

In this dazzling debut, award-winning Australian writer Richard Cooke takes a close-up look at the state of the United States. From the theology of opioids to the aftermath of a mass shooting, from #MeToo to the paintings of George W. Bush, Cooke's reporting takes him from an East Coast ravaged by climate change to the dangerous world of the US-Mexico border.

This is not another diner-hopping week in Trump country: it's a radical effort to capture dissonant and varied Americas, across more than twenty states. In brilliantly rendered accounts of poets, politicians and poisoned cities, Cooke finds a nation splintering under the weight of alienation - but showing resilience and hope in the most unexpected ways.

Entertaining and terrifying in equal measure, Tired of Winning reveals the schisms and the clamour of contemporary America.

'Showcase[s] the work of an ascendant talent ... Cooke has a knack for off-the-cuff anecdotes that gently sidestep into profundities ... This is not a particularly shining portrait of America, but it is brilliant.' --The Saturday Paper