Griefdogg

Meet Jeffrey Watson-Johnson: hydrologist, husband of Martine, father of Bern, model citizen of Mildura.

But after he inherits a small fortune from an obscure aunt and has a disconcerting encounter with his cousin Pam, Jeffrey decides it’s time to change everything.

He tells Martine he wants to live as if he were the family pet.

Sleeping through the day or wandering beside the river, he discovers a new power: he can sense secret grief in others. What to do with this gift? Or with his awareness of the endless streams of water flowing unseen beneath the earth?

Michael Winkler’s first novel Grimmish became a cult hit. Griefdogg is another triumph. Funny, sad, always entrancing, it tells a crazy-sane story about identity, love, family and forgiveness.

Michael Winkler is an Australian writer of fiction and non-fiction, living in Melbourne on unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. He is the winner of the Calibre Prize. His novel Grimmish was shortlisted for the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award, the first self-published novel to make the long- or shortlist. Griefdogg is his second novel.

‘Grimmish meets a need I didn't even know I had.’ Helen Garner on Grimmish

‘The strangest book you are likely to read this year.’ J. M. Coetzee on Grimmish

‘Playful, visceral and elegant. Sat down to read it, lost an afternoon.’ Robbie Arnott on Grimmish