‘Easy now,’ the kennels keeper tells you. You are leaning now, nearly dragging your body along the ground, as though carrying a great lump of fear. There’s nothing of the pariah I expected. And when you walk, there’s no violence, no malice in the way you move. You growl as the kennel keeper grabs you by the scruff and buckles the collar, but you don’t snap. You’re all on your own in a solitary confinement kennel by the recycling bins. Split into four seasons - the spill, simmer, falter, wither of the title - the book charts a year in the life of 57-year-old Ray, a social misfit, who buys a rescue dog - “a vicious little bugger” but a “good ratter, alright” - with one eye whom he dubs, appropriately, “One Eye”: And then I picked up Sara Baume’s Spill Simmer Falter Wither - which had been sitting on my bedside table since February - and I had to reassess my prejudice against dogs in literature, for in this beautifully written debut novel we follow the up-and-down relationship between one man and his dog, and it is truly an impressive achievement. (Please note this book has also been published by Windmill Books.)Įarlier this year I read the 2015 Giller Prize-winning Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis and I thought that may well put me off reading anything about fictional canines ever again. Fiction – paperback Tramp Press 215 pages 2015.
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