A stunning, darkly comic consideration of love, grief, the appeal of gin, and the artist's role in times of war.

Edward Dacres is an unforgettable anti-hero, a dissolute  painter whose fortunes in London have dwindled to nothing by the autumn of 1939. When a misdirected letter invites him to take part in a delegation to bring art to the Colonies, as it were, he seizes the opportunity to leave England. Once in North America, Dacres is forced by a series of mishaps  to abandon the delegation and seek survival by any means. In the puritan climate of 1939 Toronto, however, most citizens have their thoughts on the war and don't care a whit for his painted triangles. Most, that is, with the notable exception of a beautiful heiress with an eye for art and a wilful determination to save Dacres from himself.

A love story laced with satire, a historical novel bearing on contemporary truths, a picaresque tale of cowardice, drinking and artistic paralysis, Goya's Dog is above all else an original and mesmerizing debut novel from a writer The Globe and Mail has called "a truly new voice, delivered with rare panache."

Damian Tarnopolsky's profile page

Damian Tarnopolsky studied literature at the University of Toronto and Oxford University and Writing with Mavis Gallant at the Humber School for Writers. His widely praised first book, Lanzmann and Other Stories, was nominated for the ReLit Award for short fiction. His work has also been shortlisted for the Journey Prize and the CBC Literary Award. Born in London, England, he lives in Toronto with his family. Goya's Dog is his first novel.

“Sarcastic, self-destructive, yet strangely endearing, Edward Dacres is the best kind of anti-hero—the kind you can't forget. Who'd have thought a book about art and Toronto would be a page-turner? And yet it is, as we watch, riveted, to see if Dacres is going to fail or succeed. In crystaline prose, and with affectionate satire, Tarnopolsky deftly leads the reader forward, and twists this tale of a down-and-out British painter into a glorious celebration of life's simpler beauties.” - Miguel Syjuco, Author of Ilustrado

"Damian Tarnopolsky's style is essentially witty: it combines observation and action in a way that is so elegant, so articulate and yet light of touch that one is hardly aware of its complexity. And he has made a book about a troubled person and a particularly turbulent place in history, a book about Canada as seen by an Englishman, a book about art and war and desire, that is both funny and sad." - Russell Smith