Over two days, the sun rises and falls above Bob’s Boxing Palace in Reno, Nevada. While the Daughters Of America Cup means everything to the eight young women competing for victory, it matters little to anyone else. On one level, Rita Bullwinkel’s debut novel charts this tournament in linear style. However, it refuses to be constrained by structure or the concept of time itself. The narrative focus freezes then pivots, travels back through memory and trauma, then forward to the futures these girls are destined for. Paragraphs extend over pages or are completed in a single sentence; a solitary thought or moment, trapped in amber.

This all-seeing, god-like narrative voice remains in the detached third person throughout. The story is devoid of dialogue, with every thought internalised rather than spoken out loud. Despite the limitations this could impose in terms of pacing and emotional punch, it’s a stylistic gamble that largely pays off. This is due to Bullwinkel’s ability to make each well-formed character an authentic and individual life, even though they’re framed by the four corners of the same ring.

Individually, this is essentially literary portraiture. But through the combined lives of these eight young women, Headshot builds to more than the sum of their parts. Important themes and commentary begin to form through its core. Sexism is one, reflected in the indifference these female boxers endure. Their achievements are undervalued and unrewarded. The damaged bodies they carry into later life become ordinary and disconnected from the extraordinary struggles and triumphs inside the ropes through which they were forged.

Rita Bullwinkel: Headshot is published by Daunt Books on Thursday 28 March; main picture: Jenna Garrett.