The Friend (National Book Award Winner) The Friend (National Book Award Winner)

The Friend (National Book Award Winner‪)‬

A Novel

    • 4.0 • 678 Ratings
    • $12.99
    • $12.99

Publisher Description

WINNER OF THE 2018 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION

SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER


"A beautiful book … a world of insight into death, grief, art, and love." —Wall Street Journal

"A penetrating, moving meditation on loss, comfort, memory...Nunez has a wry, withering wit." —NPR

"Dry, allusive and charming…the comedy here writes itself.” The New York Times

A moving story of love, friendship, grief, healing, and the magical bond between a woman and her dog.


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.

GENRE
Fiction & Literature
RELEASED
2018
February 6
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
224
Pages
PUBLISHER
Penguin Publishing Group
SELLER
PENGUIN GROUP USA, INC.
SIZE
2.7
MB

Customer Reviews

Jillsans ,

The Friend

A wondrous tribute to friendship, how it nourishes us, and how
nothing can fill the void when a much cherished friend departs

Kafkaboyawesome ,

Read it

And then you’ll know why writing an online review while giving it stars is a melancholy act.

doug funnie ,

That’s weird.

I read this less than two weeks ago and can’t remember a single thing about it besides some vague meta-twist, the kind that seem to be all the rage these days. It’s disguise as a series of letters to a friend feels hollow with the way it is written, as if the writer was self-conscious and actually expected someone else to read these letters, writing to and for an audience instead of to a lost friend in a non-superficial, sincere manner. I guess she was though, joke’s on us.

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