Dog on Fire

Out of a Shakespearean-wild Midwest dust storm, a man rises. ＂Just a glimpse of him,＂ says his sister; ＂every inch of him,＂ says his guilt-filled lover. ＂Close your eyes,＂ says his nephew. ＂What about it?＂ asks his father. The cupboard is filled with lime Jell-O, and there are aliens, deadly kissing, and a restless, alcoholic mother who carries a gun. ＂Every family is this normal,＂ insists the narrator. ＂Whoever noticed my brother, with a family as normal as this?＂ the beleaguered sister asks. Against the smoky prairie horizon and despite his seizures, a brother builds a life. Imbued with melancholy cheer, Dog on Fire unfolds around a family’s turmoil, past loves, and a mysterious death.

Terese Svoboda is the award-winning author of nineteen other books of poetry, prose, memoir, biography, and translation, including the novels Bohemian Girl (Nebraska, 2011), the memoir Black Glasses like Clark Kent, and a forthcoming novel, Roxy and Coco.