One of the biggest themes explored in this lovely novel is the joy of canine companionship. But when subsequent attempts to re-home the dog fail, she decides to adopt him even when the threat of eviction looms large. Dogs are prohibited in the building where she resides. It was the man’s wish that the narrator adopt the giant dog, but she is initially reluctant. Now that her husband is no more, she does not know what to do with the pet he has left behind – a Great Dane called Apollo, who is ageing and pretty much on his last legs. It seems that Wife Three has an unusual request. Meanwhile, when Wife Three requests to meet our narrator, the latter is perturbed but she agrees. While his marriages, while they lasted, were unions based on love and passion, Wife One and Wife Two were always disturbed by the fact that they were never his confidantes in the way the narrator was. The wives are not named either but are referred to as Wife One, Wife Two, Wife Three. We learn that the man was married thrice, but divorced twice.

And yet, they remain the best of friends, very close in fact, much to the envy and chagrin of his wives. They have a brief affair, but their romantic relationship quickly peters out.

He was a professor teaching creative writing, and at one point she was his student. Like the woman, we don’t really know what caused her friend to undertake such a drastic step, there is no suicide note either to give any sort of clue.īut gradually a persona of the woman’s friend emerges.

We learn that the narrator, an unnamed woman, has just lost her lifelong best friend who chooses to end his life. The Friend is a beautiful, poignant novel of grief, love, loss, writing and more importantly the uniqueness of dogs and what makes them the best of companions.

The friend nunez