Dogs of Summer: A Novel |
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|---|---|
| Authors: | Abreu, Andrea |
| Publisher: | Astra Publishing House |
| BISAC/Subject: | FIC071000, FIC043000 |
| ISBN: | 9781662601606, Related ISBNs: 166260159X, 1662601603, 9781662601590, 9781662601606 |
| Classification: | Fiction |
| Number of pages: | 192, |
| Audience: | General/trade |
Synopsis: My Brilliant Friend meets I Love Dick in this lyrical debut novel set in a working-class neighborhood of the Canary Islands—a story about two girls coming of age in the 90s and a friendship that simmers into erotic desire over the course of one hot summer.
High in the mountains of northern Tenerife, an endless ceiling of gray sky traps the working class in an abject, oppressive heat. Far away from the island’s posh resorts, two girls dream of hitching a ride down to the beach and leaving their grungy, horizonless town—with its patron saints and stray dogs—behind.
It’s summer, 1994, and our nine-year-old narrator is called Shit—a pet name given to her by her best friend Isora. Isora is bossy and mean, but she’s also vivacious and brave; grownups and boys always prefer her. Sometimes Shit gets jealous of Isora, who is a year older and already has hair on her vagina and soft, round breasts. But Shit is definitely not jealous that Isora’s mother is dead, nor that her fat, foul-mouthed grandmother has Isora on a diet, so that she’s always sticking her fingers down her throat. Plus, Shit would do anything for Isora: gorge herself on cakes because she likes to watch, follow her to the bathroom when she takes a shit, log into chat rooms during class to swap dirty instant messages with strangers. And no matter how much Isora acts like she doesn’t care, when the day is over the two friends always, always walk each other home. But as Shit’s submissiveness veers into obsession and a painful sexual awakening, she finds it hard to keep up with Isora, who seems to be growing up without her. Increasingly desire becomes indistinguishable from intimate violence
Braiding prose poetry with lusty bachata lyrics and the gritty flavor of Canary dialect, Dogs of Summer is a story of exquisite yearning, a brutal picture of girlhood and its many tender initiations. Daringly visceral, darkly funny, languid and aching, Andrea Abreu’s debut novel is a love song about life’s truths, dedicated with gratitude to the community it portrays.
High in the mountains of northern Tenerife, an endless ceiling of gray sky traps the working class in an abject, oppressive heat. Far away from the island’s posh resorts, two girls dream of hitching a ride down to the beach and leaving their grungy, horizonless town—with its patron saints and stray dogs—behind.
It’s summer, 1994, and our nine-year-old narrator is called Shit—a pet name given to her by her best friend Isora. Isora is bossy and mean, but she’s also vivacious and brave; grownups and boys always prefer her. Sometimes Shit gets jealous of Isora, who is a year older and already has hair on her vagina and soft, round breasts. But Shit is definitely not jealous that Isora’s mother is dead, nor that her fat, foul-mouthed grandmother has Isora on a diet, so that she’s always sticking her fingers down her throat. Plus, Shit would do anything for Isora: gorge herself on cakes because she likes to watch, follow her to the bathroom when she takes a shit, log into chat rooms during class to swap dirty instant messages with strangers. And no matter how much Isora acts like she doesn’t care, when the day is over the two friends always, always walk each other home. But as Shit’s submissiveness veers into obsession and a painful sexual awakening, she finds it hard to keep up with Isora, who seems to be growing up without her. Increasingly desire becomes indistinguishable from intimate violence
Braiding prose poetry with lusty bachata lyrics and the gritty flavor of Canary dialect, Dogs of Summer is a story of exquisite yearning, a brutal picture of girlhood and its many tender initiations. Daringly visceral, darkly funny, languid and aching, Andrea Abreu’s debut novel is a love song about life’s truths, dedicated with gratitude to the community it portrays.
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