I’m excited to announce The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (Riverhead) as my November #HWRbooks read along, and I really hope you’ll be joining me!
Published in February 2018, I’ve certainly seen mixed reviews about this one. But with themes of love, friendship, grief, healing, and an incredible bond with a dog, I can’t just can’t resist giving it a try. It’s been on my list for quite awhile, and I really want to get to it before the end of the year.
From the publisher: When a woman unexpectedly loses her lifelong best friend and mentor, she finds herself burdened with the unwanted dog he has left behind. Her own battle against grief is intensified by the mute suffering of the dog, a huge Great Dane traumatized by the inexplicable disappearance of its master, and by the threat of eviction: dogs are prohibited in her apartment building.
While others worry that grief has made her a victim of magical thinking, the woman refuses to be separated from the dog except for brief periods of time. Isolated from the rest of the world, increasingly obsessed with the dog’s care, determined to read its mind and fathom its heart, she comes dangerously close to unraveling. But while troubles abound, rich and surprising rewards lie in store for both of them.
Elegiac and searching, The Friend is both a meditation on loss and a celebration of human-canine devotion.
Because of Thanksgiving happening at the end of the month, we’ll have the discussion a week early, on Saturday, November 23. As always, read at your leisure and join me for our discussion, where you can answer and discuss when it works for you!
Happy Reading!
Happiest When Reading 