Timoleon Vieta come home - Dan Rhodes

Cockroft, a composer and socialite in the mode of Quentin Crisp, lives in self-imposed exile and fantasises of true love and extravagant suicides. Rattling about his dilapidated farmhouse in the Italian countryside, subsisting on a trickle of royalties from past successes, his only constant source of company is the ever loyal Timoleon Vieta - a mongrel with the most beautiful eyes. When a handsome but surly individual - known only as The Bosnian - arrives on the scene, the strong bond between Cockroft and Timoleon is put under strain. Cockroft, forced into a choice between the two, abandons Timoleon outside Rome's Coliseum ...from where the dog begins the long journey home ...a journey of broken hearts, broken minds and broken spirits. In a tragicomic work of macabre beauty, Rhodes amuses and moves in equal measure. One of Britain's most promising and original young writers has produced a novel of unexpected twists and inspiring humanity.