Stray Dog Winter
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Enthralling, atmospheric and suspenseful, Stray Dog Winter is at once an unconventional Cold War thriller and an original, unforgettable love story set in 1980s Moscow. Darcy, a restless young artist, travels to the Soviet Union to visit his elusive half-sister Fin. Together only briefly during their youth, Darcy and Fin are estranged by the distance between them, yet inextricably bound by the secrets and betrayals of their childhood. Upon his arrival in the depths of a bleak Moscow winter, Darcy is immediately embroiled in Fin's mysterious life there and also drawn to Moscow's forbidden underground, finding himself swept up in political and sexual intrigues of a nature he could never have imagined. As the past resurfaces and the present closes in, the intricacies of their bond as brother and sister are revealed, and Darcy uncovers Fin's involvement in a dangerous game of her own. Their worlds threaten to collide with profound and deadly consequences.
With Stray Dog Winter, David Francis has entered Graham Greene territory, placing a naive hero in the center of political intrigue and betrayal at the end of the Cold War. Written with a stark, haunting beauty, this novel is pure Soviet noir, a remarkable tale of love, passion, politics, identity, and espionage.
Praise for Stray Dog Winter
‘Elegantly written and grippingly suspenseful, David Francis’s Stray Dog Winter takes readers right into the heart of Graham Green country.’ – JANET FITCH, author of White Oleander and Paint it Black
‘David Francis has a surgeon’s cold eye and a poet’s heart; his prose is powerful, masterful.’ – SAMANTHA DUNN, author of Failing Paris and Faith in Carlos Gomez
‘This is a wonderful book, the work of a full-fledged talent who deserves to be read widely and well.’ – DARIN STRAUSS, author of More Than it Hurts You and Chang and Eng
‘Moscow, with its icy splendour and bald brutality, is seductively evoked in the pages of Stray Dog Winter. David Francis has created a credible, parallel universe in which nobody, particularly those with whom his protagonist is the most intimate, is what he or she seems. His hero, Darcy, is vulnerable and unfailingly sympathetic; a gay, antipodean answer to Arkady Renko.’ – GABY NAHER, author of The Truth About My Fathers
‘Permeated with a brooding unease, powerfully matched by the palpable cold of winter in Moscow . . . sinister, suspenseful and beautifully written.’ – DEBORAH ADELAIDE, author of The Household Guide to Dying
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This overwrought sophomore effort from novelist Francis (The Great Inland Sea) finds young gay Australian artist Darcy Bright reluctantly traveling to Moscow in 1984 at the beck of his half-sister/cousin Fin, a fellow artist commissioned to paint the city's "industrial landscapes." Interspersing flashbacks of Darcy and Fin's childhood, Francis does little to explain the deep connection, or even the anomalous sexual attraction Darcy feels for the aloof Fin; still, he's helpless against Fin's manipulations, which include her using Darcy's portfolio to score her job. An innocent abroad pulled in different directions by strong-willed people, Darcy must also contend with expatriate Cuban Aurelio, a Moscow patrolman who rounds up hooligans and "homosexes." After Darcy's brief affair with Aurelio, the novel ricochets into thriller territory, layered with blackmail, political intrigue, sex, secret agendas and escalating violence. As the plot becomes more tangled, however, Francis's impressionistic style and lack of restraint ("He removed Aurelio's coat. It was heavy, like a shawl of dread") stand in the way of clarity, rendering his breakneck plot more exhausting than page-turning.
