 |
| Harlequin Great Dane |
Synopsis: 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. 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. She comes dangerously close to unraveling, but while troubles abound, rich and surprising rewards lie in store for both of them.
Meet Sigrid Nunez
As usual, our biographical sources are the unimpeachable source of all knowledge:
Sigrid Nunez is the daughter of a German mother and a Chinese-Panamanian father. She was born and raised in New York City. She received her BA from Barnard College (1972) and her MFA from Columbia University (1975). After finishing school she worked for a time as an editorial assistant at The New York Review of Books. Nunez is currently writer in residence at Boston University and has taught at several other schools including Amherst College, Columbia University, the New School, Princeton University, and Smith College. She lives in Manhattan.
The author's official biography:
Sigrid Nunez has published seven novels, including A Feather on the Breath of God, The Last of Her Kind, Salvation City, and, most recently, The Friend. She is also the author of Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag. Among the journals to which she has contributed are The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Paris Review, Threepenny Review, Harper’s, McSweeney’s, Tin House, The Believer and newyorker.com. Her work has also appeared in several anthologies, including four Pushcart Prize volumes and four anthologies of Asian-American literature. One of her short stories has been selected for The Best American Short Stories 2019. Nunez’s work has been translated into nine languages and is in the process of being translated into fourteen more.
Sigrid’s honors and awards include a Whiting Writer’s Award, a Berlin Prize Fellowship, and two awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters: the Rosenthal Foundation Award and the Rome Prize in Literature. The Friend won the 2018 National Book Award and was a finalist for the 2019 Simpson/Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She has taught at Columbia, Princeton, Boston University, and the New School, and has been a visiting writer or writer in residence at Amherst, Smith, Baruch, Vassar, Syracuse, and the University of California, Irvine, among others. Beginning in fall, 2019, she will be writer in residence at Boston University. Sigrid has also been on the faculty of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and of several other writers’ conferences across the country. She lives in New York City.
Interview:
Theme Music:
