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  • Published: 24 September 2014
  • ISBN: 9780241962664
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $38.00

The Dogs Of Littlefield




Discontented lives and dog poisonings: The Dogs of Littlefield is a wonderfully well drawn and wry exploration of the darker side of suburbia

Littlefield, Massachusetts: home to psychologists, college professors and their over-achieving children, and recently lauded as one of the Ten Best Places to Live in America. If happiness had a home it would be here.

Then the first dog is poisoned. At first, there is shock and disbelief: who would commit such a cruel act - and why? As more dogs die, residents notice other signs that something's not right in their home: the appearance of menacing grafitti, the persistent triggering of fire alarms at the middle school and the haunted looks neighbours begin exchanging.

For the Downings, Margaret, Bill and daughter Julia, Littlefield's gathering darkness hints at flaws in their own lives. What is wrong? What can save them?

  • Published: 24 September 2014
  • ISBN: 9780241962664
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $38.00

About the author

Suzanne Berne

Suzanne Berne was born in Washington, D.C., and now lives with her family outside Boston. She is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, and her fiction and essays have also appeared in a number of magazines. Her first novel, A Crime in the Neighbourhood won the 1999 Orange Prize for Fiction.

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Praise for The Dogs Of Littlefield

Berne takes the domestic and turns it into the majestic

Sunday Telegraph

A very well-written novel: clean, delicate, both devastating and funny in its well-chosen detail . . . it's insightful, too, with a clearly original mind behind it. Highly recommended

Daily Mail

As astute in her observations of contemporary culture as she is in capturing the minutiae of longing, disappointment and loss

Sunday Times

Fans of Anne Tyler and Alison Lurie will enjoy this peek behind the white picket fences

The Times

This funny novels explores the flaws of a perfect neighbourhood with a bizarre killer on the loose

Psychologies

A compelling novel that examines life, love and loss with a cynical but insightful world view. Original and brilliant

Sunday Mirror