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The Friend (National Book Award Winner)

A Novel

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING NAOMI WATTS

“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
The New York Times bestselling 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.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 4, 2017
      In the riveting new novel from Nunez (Salvation City), the unnamed narrator thinks in the second person, addressing an unnamed old friend, a man, who has recently and unexpectedly committed suicide. The two first met decades earlier, while she was his student, the same semester in fact, when a fellow student became “Wife One” of three. While wives and lovers have come and gone, the narrator has remained a constant, friendly intimate of the deceased, a platonic yet intense and complex relationship. Mourning, she begins writing a cathartic elegy that becomes a larger meditation on writing, loss, and various forms of love. Early in the book, Wife Three calls to ask if the narrator will take responsibility for a large Great Dane named Apollo, whom the man had found abandoned in Central Park. Despite the unexpectedness of the request, the narrator takes the dog home, and over the course of the rest of the novel, her love for Apollo both consumes and heals her. 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.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In this writerly audiobook, a middle-aged author inherits an aging Great Dane after her friend's suicide. As she learns to care for the animal and struggles with the loss of her friend, she reflects on the friendship, and on writing, literature, and humans' relationships with their pets and each other. Hillary Huber's gravelly, frank delivery complements Nunez's unnamed narrator, who is by turns unflinchingly honest and frustratingly opaque about her own grief. Subtle vocal changes differentiate characters, but the novel belongs mostly to the protagonist. Huber's warm, wry narration keeps the listener engaged through diversions and flashbacks that make up this unusual, thought-provoking novel. E.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      June 15, 2018

      Hillary Huber takes on human and canine characters with mindful, measured narration. The woman--an unnamed writing professor--has lost her best friend and mentor to suicide. When she's summoned postmortem by Wife Three (Wife One is a friend, Wife Two not at all, Wife Three the grieving widow), she's bequeathed a Great Dane, Apollo, whose own mourning for his lost master might eclipse that of the human survivors. Despite a no-dogs policy in her rent-controlled building, the woman reluctantly accepts the canine burden, and--as these relationships often go--the dog, in all his reluctant, oversized, growling glory, proves to be (wo)man's best friend. Huber equally matches Nunez's (Salvation City) unblinking, straightforward presentation, never devolving into despair. From (dead) old friend to new (dog) friend, Nunez deftly plots a path toward emotional recovery. VERDICT Pet lovers and book lovers will appreciate Nunez's pithy ruminations on writing, relationships, wrongful death, and, of course, the healing power of our four-legged friends. ["Literature nerds, creative writing students, and dog lovers will find this work delightful": LJ 12/17 review of the Riverhead hc.]--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

      Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In this chilling audiobook, one man's choices during a clandestine affair lead to danger for those trying to help him. Narrator Josh Bloomberg voices Jacob Seger, a fledgling Swedish diplomat assigned to war-torn Beirut. The tentative Jacob quickly finds himself in over his head in his relationship with the exotic Yassim, whom Jacob falls for despite her mysterious disappearances for "work." Narrator Hillary Huber portrays sharp-witted Klara Waldeen, a recovering alcoholic who, with her lover, George, gets yanked into Jacob's orbit while investigating why a friend has been arrested as a terrorist. Bloomberg and Huber ably showcase the overwhelming confusion of the trio who are drawn together while being hunted by shadowy figures. What results is a thought-provoking thriller that holds up a mirror to today's rampant global paranoia. D.E.M. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

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