A moving story of love, friendship, grief, healing, and the magical bond between a woman and her dog.
Sigrid Nunez is the author of the novels Salvation City, The Last of Her Kind, A Feather on the Breath of God, and For Rouenna, among others. She is also the author of Sempre Susan- A Memoir of Susan Sontag. She has been the recipient of several awards, including a Whiting Award, the Rome Prize in Literature, and a Berlin Prize Fellowship. Nunez lives in New York City.
“The contemplation of writing and the loss of integrity in our
literary life form the heart of the novel...Nunez’s prose itself
comforts us. Her confident and direct style uplifts—the music in
her sentences, her deep and varied intelligence. She addresses
important ideas unpretentiously and offers wisdom for any aspiring
writer who, as the narrator fears, may never know this dear,
intelligent friend—or this world that is dying. But is it dying?
Perhaps. But with The Friend, Nunez provides evidence that, for
now, it survives.” —The New York Times Book Review
"Charming... the comedy here writes itself... the novel's tone in
general, however, is mournful and resonant... The snap of her
sentences sometimes puts me in mind of Rachel Cusk." —The New
York Times
“In crystalline prose, Nunez creates an impressively controlled
portrait of the ‘exhaustion of mourning.’” —The New Yorker
“Everywhere in this novel it is impossible to separate love and
companionship from loss...The Friend is one of those rare
novels that, in the end, makes your heart beat slower.” —Los
Angeles Review of Books
“A beautiful book … crammed with a world of insight into death,
grief, art, and love.” —Wall Street Journal
"A meditation on reading and writing, love and loss, The Friend is
a work rich in literary allusions and anecdotes….With The Friend .
. . [Nunez’s] found the perfect pitch….Nunez’s prose is
illuminated by a wit, warmth and wisdom all of her own. The Friend
is a true delight: I genuinely fear I won’t read a better novel
this year.” — The Financial Times
"A penetrating, moving meditation on loss, comfort, memory, what it
means to be a writer today, and various forms of love and
friendship... Nunez has a wry, withering wit.” —NPR
“The book is an intimate, beautiful thing, deceptively slight at
around 200 pages, but humming with insight… [an] artfully
discursive meditation on friendship, love, death, solitude, canine
companionship and the life of an aging writer in New York. Far from
being heavy going, this novel, written as a letter to the late
friend, is peppered with wry observations, particularly those of a
writer stuck teaching undergraduates.” –The Economist
“In this slim but pitch-perfect novel, a writer loses her best
friend and mentor suddenly without explanation…Wry and
moving, The Friend is a love story, a mania story, and a
recovery story.” —Vanity Fair
“A poignant reflection on loss and companionship.” —Marie
Claire
“[A] sneaky gut punch of a novel…a consummate example of the
human-animal tale…The Friend’s tone is dry, clear, direct—which is
the surest way to carry off this sort of close-up study of anguish
and attachment.” —Harper's Magazine
“A wry riff on Rilke’s idea of love as two solitudes that ‘protect
and border and greet each other.’”—Vogue
"With enormous heart and eloquence, Nunez explores cerebral
responses to loss… The Friend exposes an extraordinary reserve
of strength waiting to be found in storytelling and unexpected
companionship.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"Often as funny as it is thoughtful, The Friend is an elegant
meditation on grief, friendship, healing, and the bonds between
humans and dogs." —Buzzfeed
“A serious book about a big sloppy dog, Nunez’s seventh novel…
displays the intellectual heft of her late friend’s work, but also
a distinctive sense of humor and narrative momentum.” —Vulture
“A brilliant examination of the writer’s life, literary friendship,
mortality, bereavement, and our relationship to animals. The novel
is not easily summarized; the true rewards of this reading
experience are the crystalline prose… Readers will also savor the
surprising shifts in narrative focus.” —The Rumpus
"An elegant and darkly humorous meditation on grief and
companionship, it's a great read — whether or not you're obsessed
with canines.” —Shondaland.com
“Sigrid Nunez’s novel delivers an enthralling, emotional
tale.” —Paste Magazine
"The Friend is proof that what we lack is itself a vital part
of life — and that loss can lead to meaningful connections found in
unlikely places. Sometimes it can take an animal to make a person
understand their own humanity. And sometimes a book as unexpected
as The Friend can provide as much comfort as any canine
companion.” —B&N Review
“Quietly brilliant and darkly funny… [The Friend is] rigorous
and stark, so elegant—so dismissive of conventional notions of
plot—it hardly feels like fiction. Breathtaking both in pain and in
beauty; a singular book.” —Kirkus, starred review
“Riveting… This elegant novel explores both rich memories and
day-to-day mundanity, reflecting the way that, especially in grief,
the past is often more vibrant than the present.” —Publishers
Weekly
“Light, musing, curious, and somehow wonderfully sturdy.” –Vivian
Gornick for Bookforum
“Brilliant but informal, sad yet laugh-out-loud funny… This
beautiful, spare, work will not disappoint.” –Bookpage
“Nunez offers an often-hilarious, always-penetrating look at
writing, grief, and the companionship of dogs.” —Booklist
"The joys of this novel lie in Nunez’s striking capacity to
describe the world and its inhabitants, both human and animal.
Nunez is a keen observer of behavior, and throughout the text she
plants wonderful nuggets that immediately ring true yet still
manage to be surprising.” —Michigan Daily
“A slow, poignant meditation on grief, rife with pithy literary
myths and quotations… Literature nerds, creative writing students,
and dog lovers will find this work delightful. Recommended for
literary fiction collections.” —Library Journal
“Nunez’s story of a dog and his inadvertent caregiver is a darkly
humorous and unsentimental tale of friendship, mourning, and
solace.”—Electric Lit
“The intensity and elegance of The Friend mean two things—you
cannot put it down and you will cry. In a novel about loss and the
loneliness of writing and imagination, Sigrid Nunez creates an
irresistible tale of love and an unforgettable Great Dane. A
beautiful, beautiful book—the most original canine love story since
My Dog Tulip.” —Cathleen Schine, bestselling author of They May Not
Mean To, But They Do
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