THE FRIEND
When a woman loses her closest friend and long-time mentor without warning, she inherits something she never asked for: an enormous Great Dane with sad eyes and no idea where his owner has gone. It's an awkward arrangement from the start. Dogs are forbidden in her apartment building, and she's barely holding herself together as it is. Yet here she is, responsible for a grieving animal almost too large to ignore, in a flat where he probably shouldn't exist. What follows is quietly extraordinary. Nunez charts the woman's slow unravelling with precision and a kind of wry tenderness. The dog doesn't speak, of course, but his presence looms large, and her growing fixation on understanding him, on reading something into his stillness, begins to blur the line between caring for another creature and losing herself entirely. The two of them orbit each other in shared, unspoken sorrow. This is a novel about grief, yes, but also about literature, solitude, and the strange comfort animals offer when human connection falls short. Nunez writes with intelligence and dry wit, and the book earns its emotional moments without straining for them. The Financial Times called it 'a true delight', and it's hard to argue. Winner of the 2018 National Book Award and shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, it's the sort of book that stays with you long after you've closed it, like a dog waiting patiently by the door.
- Author: Sigrid Nunez
- Publisher: Virago
- Genre: Pet Care & Training
- ISBN: 978-0349012810
- Pages: 224 pages