The Dog of the North
A Novel
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- 9,99 €
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- 9,99 €
Publisher Description
* Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize * A New Yorker Best Book of the Year * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * Nominated for the Women’s Prize for Fiction *
“I’m in love with a grieving misfit driving around with a donkey-shaped piñata in an old van held together by duct tape…the great miracle of McKenzie’s writing… is how she manages to transform misery into gentle humor…darkly hilarious.” —The Washington Post
“An addictive read with an ultimately hopeful core that recalls Haruki Murakami, Sayaka Murata, Richard Brautigan, and Miranda July” – Sanjena Sathian, author of Gold Diggers
Penny Rush has problems. Her marriage is over; she’s quit her job. Her mother and stepfather went missing in the Australian outback five years ago; her mentally unbalanced father provokes her; her grandmother Dr. Pincer keeps experiments in the refrigerator and something worse in the woodshed. But Penny is a virtuoso at what’s possible when all else fails.
Elizabeth McKenzie, the National Book Award–nominated author of The Portable Veblen, follows Penny on her quest for a fresh start. There will be a road trip in the Dog of the North, an old van with gingham curtains, a piñata, and stiff brakes. There will be injury and peril. There will be a dog named Kweecoats and two brothers who may share a toupee. There will be questions: Why is a detective investigating her grandmother. What is “the Scintillator”? And can Penny recognize a good thing when it finally comes her way?
This slyly humorous, thoroughly winsome novel finds the purpose in life’s curveballs, insisting that even when we are painfully warped by those we love most, we can be brought closer to our truest selves.
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.
