Under option in Italy
Nothing. There won’t be a spa and certainly not a casino springing up on the Buzzati’s land. Dante Buzzati won’t be diddled. This family property in Neuilly-sur-Seine was won by his father Ettore with the sweat of his brow and brilliance with dogs.
Sadly, there is one problem for Dante’s great plans: women. So when a manipulative, icy beauty called Anne-Laure Chinon moves in next door with her baggage of a troubled childhood, his furious defence of his family inheritance takes a bit of a knock.
An ambiguous relationship evolves between this son of a one-armed labourer and his smart semi-detached neighbour, by turns cordial, intimate and professional. Even though Dante, a graphic designer by trade, has abandoned plans to pursue his father’s search for canine psychology, much to his beloved daughter’s exasperation he now launches himself into a project orchestrated by his flamboyant neighbour: a workshop sought-after by anyone who’s anyone in Neuilly, and dedicated exclusively to man’s best friend, a centre for absurd holistico-mystical experiments in which master and dog become one. A non-profit making organisation… heading straight for financial disaster.
A funny, dark, tongue-in-cheek novel, bringing a canine mirror up to our contemporary world with all its cruelty, intrigue, cynicism and mercilessness; a place where people go into raptures about their own vacuity. On every level linguistic as well as symbolic this book explores our relationship with animals and the ways in which we perceive animality.
Dog Days is Luc Lang’s seventh novel. His previous books include Mille six cents ventres (winner of the 1998 Goncourt des lycéens) and La fin des paysages (2006). He has also written a collection of short stories, Cruels, 13, published by Stock in 2008.