Journalist Daniel Mandelkern leaves Hamburg on assignment to interview Dirk Svensson, a reclusive children's book author who lives alone on the Italian side of Lake Lugano with his three-legged dog. Mandelkern has been quarreling with his wife (who is also his editor); he suspects she has other reasons for sending him away. After stumbling on a manuscript of Svensson's about a complicated ménage à; trois, Mandelkern is plunged into mysteries past and present. Rich with anthropological and literary allusion, the novel tells the parallel stories of two writers struggling with the burden of the past and the uncertainties of the future. Funeral for a Dog won the prestigious Uwe-Johnson Prize, and critics raved: 'Pletzinger's debut is a real smash hit. It's been a long time since a young German writer has thrown himself into the hurly-burly of life and literature with so much intelligence and bravado' (Wolfgang Hobel, Der Spiegel). This 2011 W.W. Norton & Company Paperback is in near mint condition. ISBN: 9780393337259 SKU: 1165478 Note: Any image shown is from a stock photo and is not the actual book.
