Nadia Ragbar's The Pugilist and the Sailor

Reviewed by Nicole Yurcaba

(Invisible, 2025)

Nadia Ragbar’s The Pugilist and the Sailor is the ambitious story of Bruce and Dougie, conjoined twins who have very different interests and very different life paths. Dougie is a security guard and a semi-professional boxer. Bruce is, in a sense, Dougie’s antithesis. He is a sensible accountant who, at times, has a romantic view of the world. He is forced to participate in Dougie’s interests and vice versa. However, just as Dougie begins preparing for one of the biggest boxing matches of his semiprofessional career, a young woman named Anka sparks Bruce’s interest. The two begin sharing letters, and Bruce discovers that Anka is enduring a period of intense grief. Bruce and Anka bond, and Bruce continues to dream of being a circumnavigator.

While Ragbar’s well-developed plot about conjoined twins and their shared—yet extremely different—lives opens a new door in fiction, The Pugilist and the Sailor is also a keen, microscopic examination of grief in all of its facets. Ragbar’s sharp portrayal of Anka’s grief is, at times, stinging. The novel’s narrator describes Anka in animalistic terms: “Anka was a beast left to die in the middle of the desert; the sun-baked bones of her skull had been left for someone to eventually discover and muse over.” The raw descriptions emulate grief’s brutality, and they foreshadow the ensuing depression Anka will fall into after her parents’ sudden deaths.

Compounding Dougie and Bruce’s physical, psychological, and emotional states, too, is the lingering question about whether or not they should be separated. Bruce wants to be separated, and as the novel progresses, the topic more and more divides Bruce and Dougie. Dougie recognizes that “his obsession with boxing was the very thing that would make separating easier.” They must also accept a harsh fact that their doctor, Dr. Lars, presents: “Adults have never been separated.” Facing the surgery makes both twins sit with their individual discomforts about their lives and their impending separation. However, after their surgery, it seems both brothers recognize that their separation granted them what each of them most desired—individual freedom.

The Pugilist and the Sailor also stands out because of its immense character development. Even Dougie and Bruce’s parents, who are, in a sense, minor characters, receive their own spotlights. The novel’s portrayal of their mother, Jane, and her experiences with grief and being a mother to conjoined twins is significant. These portrayals combine with the alternating chapters telling each character’s story. This structure creates emotional emphasis, allowing each character to have and to share their moments of joy, grief, and confusion. This type of character development is important, especially in regards to Dougie and Bruce. Ragbar captures the characters’ tug-of-war emotions and perceptions acutely and vividly. At times, the chapters seem more like a clear, well-taken photograph than a series of words on the page.

The Pugilist and the Sailor joins the likes of novels such as Sarah Crossan’s One and Lori Lansens’ The Girls. It tackles difficult questions about longing, belonging, connection, and compromise—making it a universal novel thematically, despite its specific focus. Most of all, it’s an inspiration to individuals of all backgrounds to pursue their dreams, share their experiences, and live the life that each one of them has imagined.

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​Nicole Yurcaba (Нікола Юрцаба) is a Ukrainian American of Hutsul/Lemko origin. Her poems and reviews have appeared in Appalachian Heritage, Atlanta Review, Seneca Review, New Eastern Europe, and Ukraine’s Euromaidan Press, Lit Gazeta, Chytomo, Bukvoid, and The New Voice of Ukraine. Nicole holds an MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University, teaches poetry workshops for Southern New Hampshire University, and is the Humanities Coordinator at Blue Ridge Community and Technical College. She also serves as a guest book reviewer for Sage Cigarettes, Tupelo Quarterly, Colorado Review, and Southern Review of Books. Her poetry collection, The Pale Goth, is available from Alien Buddha Press.