by JonMcGregor (Author)
They break down the door at the end of December and carry his body away. On a still and frozen day between Christmas and New Year, a man's body is found lying in his ruined flat. Found, and then taken away, examined, investigated and cremated. As the state begins its detailed, dispassionate inquest, the man embarks on his last journey through a world he has not ventured into, alive, for years. In his wake, a series of fractured narratives emerge from squats and alleyways across the city: the short and stark story of the man, and of his friends who look on from the shadows, keeping vigil as the hours pass, paying their own particular homage. As they watch, their stories unfurl layer by layer; stories of lives fallen through the cracks, hopes flaring and dying, love overwhelmed by a stronger need, and the havoc wrought by drugs, distress and the disregard of the wider world. Intense, exhilarating, and shot through with hope and fury, Even the Dogs is an intimate exploration of life at the edges of society; littered with love, loss, despair and a glimpse of redemption.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 208
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 01 Feb 2010
ISBN 10: 0747599440
ISBN 13: 9780747599449
Book Overview: An exhilarating and heartbreaking journey into the world of the homeless and the addicted, meticulously researched and informed by McGregor's wife's experience of working with heroin addicts Once again, McGregor focuses on the unremarkable and forgotten to tell a wider story about 21st Britain Tough, delicate and written in McGregor's inimitably beautiful prose, Even the Dogs ventures into the territory of Trainspotting and How Late It was How Late, but surpasses both in its humanity and insight Over 200,000 copies of If Nobody Speaks sold to date