The Dog of the North
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- 11,99 €
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- 11,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2023
The darkly comic new novel from the bestselling author of The Portable Veblen
'Incredibly funny and very moving’ BELLA MACKIE
'A blissful novel that I want to give to everyone I love’ NINA STIBBE
‘Even funnier, even more romantic than McKenzie’s wonderful last’ KAREN JOY FOWLER
Penny Rush has problems. Freshly divorced from her mobile knife-sharpener husband, she has returned home to Santa Barbara to deal with her grandfather, who is being moved into a retirement home by his cruel second wife. Her grandmother, meanwhile, has been found in possession of a sinister sounding weapon called ‘the scintilltor’ and something even worse in her woodshed. Penny’s parents have been missing in the Australian outback for many years now, and so Penny must deal with this spiralling family crisis alone.
Enter The Dog of The North. The Dog of the North is a borrowed van, replete with yellow gingham curtains, wood panelling, a futon, a pinata, clunky brakes and difficult steering. It is also Penny’s getaway car from a failed marriage, a family in crisis and an uncertain future. This darkly, dryly comic novel follows Penny as she sets out in The Dog to find a way through the curveballs life has thrown at her and in doing so, find a way back to herself.
Reviews
‘Incredibly funny and very moving’ Bella Mackie, author of How to Kill Your Family
‘Penny must surely remind readers of Eleanor Oliphant, Bernadette, Lisa Simpson, and – brilliantly – themselves. The mix of oddness, mystery, pain and joy is perfectly blended. All in all, this is a blissful novel that I want to give to everyone I love’ Nina Stibbe, author of Reasons to be Cheerful
‘Even funnier, even more romantic than McKenzie's wonderful last, The Portable Veblen. You will be surprised, delighted, and grateful to be aboard The Dog of the North with the admirable Penny Rush as she faces every challenge her wild and crazy family can throw at her. A book that lifts the spirits’ Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
‘Darkly absurd and slyly insightful. A genuinely comic novel and a potent, poignant investigation into grief and the myriad ways we flailingly, failingly attempt to avoid the pains of loss' Miranda Popkey, author of Topics of Conversation
‘Gloriously entertaining, intelligent, presented with great insight and skill. An exuberant comedy of human behaviour at its nuttiest’ The Times
'Elizabeth McKenzie is clearly some sort of genius' Paul Murray, author of The Bee Sting
Praise for The Portable Veblen…
‘Seriously funny and extraordinarily well written’ Jonathan Franzen
‘I can’t remember a book I enjoyed more’ Nina Stibbe
‘McKenzie has a wonderful eye for the craziness that is everywhere in ordinary life’ Tessa Hadley
About the author
Elizabeth McKenzie is the author of the novel The Portable Veblen, which was a finalist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and longlisted for the National Book Award. Her collection, Stop That Girl, was shortlisted for The Story Prize and her debut novel MacGregor Tells the World was a Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, and Library Journal Best Book of the Year. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Best American Nonrequired Reading and recorded for NPR’s Selected Shorts.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A grieving woman navigates a series of misadventures in the endearing and quirky latest from McKenzie (The Portable Veblen). Five years earlier, Penny Rush's mother and stepfather disappeared while traveling in the Australian outback. When Penny Rush learns her grandmother, known mainly as Dr. Pincer, has threatened her Meals on Wheels delivery person with a gun at her Santa Barbara house, Penny quits her dead-end job and takes the train from Santa Cruz to help keep Pincer safe from the prying eyes at Adult Protective Services. She's also relieved to have something to get her mind off her missing mother. There, she befriends Pincer's kooky accountant, Burt Lampey. As Penny arranges for a cleaning crew to fix up Pincer's house, she gets a call from her grandfather Arlo's much-younger wife, who complains Arlo is "too old to be of use." Along the way, Penny gets help from Burt, who drives a van named the Dog of the North and has a Pomeranian called Kweecoats ("like Quick Oats, but with a French accent," Burt explains). There's also a trip to Australia, unexpected visits from Penny's biological father, and the discovery of a skeleton. With the anxious and well-meaning Penny at the helm, McKenzie brings sincerity to the otherwise zany proceedings. This whirlwind tale has heart to spare.