Meet the mongrel. Timoleon Vieta. A deeply loyal, undemanding and loving companion . . . with the most beautiful eyes. He's living an idyllic existence in the Italian countryside with Cockroft, a composer in exile.
Until, that is, the mysterious and malevolent 'Bosnian' comes to stay. How will the stranger affect the bond between dog and master?
Timoleon Vieta Come Home is a free-wheelin' take on the Lassie legend, deeply moving and hysterically funny.
Quirky and original, and the storytelling is truly virtuoso. A literary treasure.
A delight, a masterpiece of beautifully unforced comedy.
Charming, original, funny, biting and wise.
GuardianEverybody should go out and buy a Copy of <I>Timoleon Vieta</I>. . . A story worthy of W. G. Sebald, universal in its scope and ambition.
ROSE TREMAIN, Daily TelgraphA delight, a masterpiece of beautifully unforced comedy.
ObserverBy turns hilarious and heartrending. Rhodes is that real, rare thing - a natural storyteller.
Sunday Times'Utterly captivating.'
Heat'This intelligent, bitter-sweet novel, exploring the relationship between an effete, expatriate socialite living in the Italian country-side with the eponymous Timoleon Vieta ('a mongrel with the most beautiful eyes'), should only serve to cement that reputation and confirm his early promise. I forsee this title being a spring sensation for Canongate, and it has already created a great deal of word-of-mouth excitement in the trade.'
Greg Eden, Bookseller'The best new writer in Britain.'
The Guardian'Is there a more innovative... readable writer than Rhodes working in Britain today?'
Big Issue'Very funny and very sharp with crushingly wicked moments.'
The Times'Funny, fantastic and strangely profound.'
Independent"In the rush to praise Monica Ali and Mark Haddon, many critics have overlooked the writing of Dan Rhodes, who is surely the true best of Granta's new Best Of list. Everybody should go out and buy Timoleon Vieta Come Home (Canongate), a tender but unsentimental novel about a failed composer, his sadistic lover and his mongrel dog. A story worthy of W.G Sebald, universal in its scope and ambition."
Rose Tremain
