God's Dog

Description

Set in a not-too-distant future, and moving between Rome and Amsterdam, God's Dog is a detective novel unlike any you have read before. It is the eve of Pope Benedict XVIII's canonisation and Domingo Salazar, a Haitian orphan and now a Vatican secret agent, is hellbent on defeating the Angels of Death, pro-abortion and pro-euthanasia dissidents who are undermining the Pope's authority. But as Salazar closes in on the cell he finds his life turned upside down. Suddenly it is Salazar and his closest friend Guntur who are under suspicion of sabotaging the administration. Their concept for a globalised religion called Bible-Koranism has upset the Church and they are in grave danger, as is Guntur's infamous Swahili-speaking chimpanzee Django. God's Dog is a spoof on the absurdities of institutionalised religion that will delight aficionados of thrillers and detective novels as well as fans of Diego Marani.

Promotion info

* Early reading copies available to the trade * Review coverage in major Australian and New Zealand newspapers such as Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Courier Mail, West Australian, Dominion Post, The Press and NZ Herald * Review coverage in Australian and New Zealand general and literary publications such as The Big Issue, NZ Listener and North & South * Promotions and giveaways with targeted subscriber groups, including book lovers such as the CAE and Good Reading * Banner advertising on bookseller websites and Text's own site * Feature title in Text's industry and public newsletters

Reviews

'When I reviewed New Finnish Grammar, I edged towards using the word "genius" to describe Marani. I'm doing so again now.' Guardian on The Last of the Vostyachs 'A roller-coaster ride whisking the reader alternatively through zones of darkness, hilarity, cruelty, tenderness, the near-lubricious...There's something for almost everyone.' PEN on The Last of the Vostyachs 'A riot of comic unpredictability.' Times Literary Supplement on The Last of the Vostyachs Marani's fascination with languages, and with the silencing of language in particular, permeates this captivating work...Part murder mystery set in the Arctic, part study of language, part Norse saga-though spiced with its own modernity, magic and humour-and part evocation of the Arctic wilderness, Marani's novel shows his extraordinary skills and erudition.' Sydney Morning Herald / Age on The Last of the Vostyachs

Author description

Diego Marani was born in Ferrara, Italy in 1959. He has worked as a translator and policy officer for the European Commission and has written several other novels, collections of essays and short stories. New Finnish Grammar was published by Text in 2012 and was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Award and the Best Translated Book Award. The Last of the Vostyachs was published by Text in 2013. Judith Landry won the 2012 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize for her translation of New Finnish Grammar.