Funeral for a Dog: A Novel

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You might like to say a short prayer, or a member of the family might speak about the beloved dog and their happy memories. Our pets become so entwined in our daily lives that we become dependent on them for comfort and support.

At the outset of the novel, they have had an argument (possibly about having children) and he leaves for the assignment in Italy abruptly without settling things. In observing this former throuple, Svensson is able to decide in what realm of time he wants to dwell: past, present, or future. Along the way, he stumbles upon a hidden manuscript of Svensson's and the book switches back and forth between excerpts of the manuscript and Mandelkern's attempts to make sense of both his subject and his own life.A random pick-up from my local library - the cover with its neon colours and the word 'dog' attracting my attention - I'm so pleased I stuck with it.

Your ‘farewell ceremony’ will be bespoke and personal and I am happy to provide music to accompany your ceremony. It isn't "language-centred", playing with the German-ness of the words (Pletzinger and his translator, Ross Benjamin, simply moved the German puns around and made English ones); nor is it focused on particularly German topics. The book dramatizes aspects of Svennsons real life, where he and his friend Felix (Daniel Strasser) met Tuuli Kovero (Alina Tomnikov) and the three had a tempestuous love affair that spanned a decade and several countries. I pushed through because Oscar had a penchant for beautiful things and I figured if it was worthy of gifting, there must be something about it. I'm all for a slow build to a drama, particularly a character based one, but I do look back now and wonder whether we needed all of the side stories and diversions that this takes.

I’m sitting alone and completely exhausted in the waiting area at Gate 8 (on the other side of the airfield, the pines on the edge of Niendorf). The story shifts back and forth through time, flitting from Hamburg to a ruined house on the shores of Lake Lugano, from New York City to a Brazilian favela with a restlessness that mirrors his own travels while he was writing.

The most intriguing aspect of this history is the author's presentation of The Borromean Rings, the idea of three people needing both the other "rings" to survive. Mandelkern has been sent by his boss/wife to interview Svensson for an article at his home in Lake Lugano.I could easily have told a similar story – a love triangle in New York – in 2000, not 2001," he says. The first couple of episodes give us all the context that we need for the present-day story, perhaps with the exception of the knowledge that they have a child together a little later on. Seltsame Buch, das ich bin sicher, würde ich es mehr begrüßen, wenn ich es in meiner Muttersprache las.