"Told with such humour and suspense that it's hard to put down . . . A
rare achievement, an unstintingly honest, hilarious, and dreadful
delight." -- Globe and Mail Greer Pentland is having a challenging year.
Her teenaged son, Sam, is on trial for the murder of two senior
citizens, a crime allegedly committed while he was sleepwalking. Greer
is also battling breast cancer, a disease that has left her with a
litany of physical side effects and deep anger toward the incompetence
of the medical profession. Yet, in the face of all these obstacles,
Greer's story is full of hope and delicious dark humour. Her indelible
strength is fuelled by her unconditional love for her son and the moral
support she receives from her 88-year-old aunt, a chain-smoking,
vodka-swilling, vitamin-popping senior whose continual commentary on the
morbid news of the day is wickedly funny and provocative. This novel
about one courageous woman's fight to survive in a post-millennium
culture gone mad is heroic, heart stopping, and affecting. The Barking
Dog, the fifth novel from Cordelia Strube, Canada's pre-eminent writer
of urban fiction, is an unforgettable portrait of modern life in these
media-saturated, apocalyptic times.