Wishlist

Saved in this browser only - it isn't synced to your other devices.

Back to the full ranking

#280 of 8,085 books · #145 in Fiction

Won the National Book Award for Fiction (2018). Also shortlisted or longlisted for 1 other award.

The Friend won the National Book Award for Fiction and was one of the New York Times's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. 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.

Buy this book at AmazonAd
Publisher
Penguin
ISBN-13
9780735219465
Genre
Topics
Grief and lossHuman-animal bondFriendship and mentorship

Other awarded books from Sigrid Nunez

Sigrid Nunez has no other awarded or shortlisted books yet.