Get Free eBook Sample
David Francis grew up in rural Victoria and represented Australia internationally in equestrian events. He now lives in Los Angeles, where he works as a lawyer. His first novel, Agapanthus Tango, was published by Fourth Estate in the UK and McAdam Cage in the US, and was translated into eight languages. David returns to Australia every year.
Stray Dog Winter
eBook
$5.49
$5.99
| Save 8%
-
ISBN-13:
9781596929340
- Publisher: MacAdam/Cage Publishing, Incorporated
- Publication date: 05/22/2010
- Sold by: Barnes & Noble
- Format: eBook
- File size: 321 KB
Available on NOOK devices and apps
Want a NOOK? Explore Now
5.49
In Stock
Darcy Bright, a restless young artist, receives a surprising birthday present from his elusive half-sister Fin: a ticket to the Soviet Union housed in a leather money belt. Together only briefly during their youth, Darcy and Fin are both estranged by the distance between them, and yet inextricably bound by the secrets of their childhood. So when Fin — ostensibly in Moscow on a fellowship to paint industrial landscapes — invites Darcy to join her there, her wary brother doesn’t resist.
Soon after his arrival in the bleak Soviet winter, Darcy, already engulfed in Fin's mysterious new life there, becomes entangled in an extortion plot designed to change the course of Cold War history. And as the intricacies of their bond as brother and sister are revealed, Darcy uncovers Fin’s involvement in an unexpected cause of her own, leading to a confrontation with profound and deadly consequences.
Atmospheric and suspenseful, Stray Dog Winter is a remarkable novel about love, passion, politics, and identity.
Recently Viewed
Publishers Weekly
This overwrought sophomore effort from novelist Francis (The Great Inland Sea) finds young gay Australian artist Darcy Bright reluctantly traveling to Moscow in 1984 at the beck of his half-sister/cousin Fin, a fellow artist commissioned to paint the city's "industrial landscapes." Interspersing flashbacks of Darcy and Fin's childhood, Francis does little to explain the deep connection, or even the anomalous sexual attraction Darcy feels for the aloof Fin; still, he's helpless against Fin's manipulations, which include her using Darcy's portfolio to score her job. An innocent abroad pulled in different directions by strong-willed people, Darcy must also contend with expatriate Cuban Aurelio, a Moscow patrolman who rounds up hooligans and "homosexes." After Darcy's brief affair with Aurelio, the novel ricochets into thriller territory, layered with blackmail, political intrigue, sex, secret agendas and escalating violence. As the plot becomes more tangled, however, Francis's impressionistic style and lack of restraint ("He removed Aurelio's coat. It was heavy, like a shawl of dread") stand in the way of clarity, rendering his breakneck plot more exhausting than page-turning. (Oct.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.