The Color of A Dog Running Away, Richard Gwyn
The Color of A Dog Running Away, Richard Gwyn
List: $22.50 | Sale: $15.75
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The Color of A Dog Running Away

Author: Richard Gwyn

Narrator: Robertson Dean

Unabridged: 9 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/20/2007


Synopsis

Lucas, a musician and translator living in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, comes home one day to find a cryptic invitation. When he appears at the appointed time, he sets in motion a series of bizarre, seemingly interconnected events that disrupt his previously passive existence. He meets the alluring Nuria and they begin an intense love affair. He is approached by a band of Barcelona’s mythic roof dwellers and has a run-in with a fire-eating prophet.

But when he and Nuria are kidnapped by a religious cult with roots stretching back to the thirteenth century, Lucas realizes that his life is spinning out of control. The cult’s megalomaniac leader, Pontneuf, maintains that Nuria and Lucas are essential to his plan to revive the religion. While Nuria is surprisingly open to Pontneuf and his theories, Lucas is outraged and makes his escape. Back in Barcelona, Lucas wanders the streets in a drug-and-alcohol-induced haze, pining for Nuria and struggling to make sense of what has happened to him.

With the alluring and enchanting Barcelona as a vibrant backdrop, THE COLOR OF A DOG RUNNING AWAY is a love story, tale of adventure, and historical thriller–an unforgettable and mesmerizing novel that will beguile and disturb in equal measure.

About The Author

Richard Gwyn was born in Wales. A poet and translator, this is his first novel.His Web site can be found at www.richardgwyn.com.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Candice on July 26, 2021

I really enjoyed this. The writing style was unique and beguiling. The story unfolded in colours before me, reminding me of the beauty of language. This is a love story for a person, a place and possibility.......more

Goodreads review by Greg on May 19, 2012

I purchased this book in May 2007 for a good reason, which I immediately forgot. Eighteen months later, I blew off the dust and read the flyleaf. It's about some guy in Barcelona who receives an anonymous postcard that leads to a torrid love affair with Nuria and their abduction by a religious cult,......more

Goodreads review by Laurie on June 03, 2021

Not a bad book; just rather inconsequential. I picked it up mostly because it takes place in Barcelona.......more

Goodreads review by Beth on March 01, 2015

Lots of talk, little coherent plot, and characters that the reader learns nothing about. I think this author likes to show off. Many high minded sounding thoughts and conversations, but they really don't fit together to make a story or tell an interesting point of view.......more

Goodreads review by Tony on February 23, 2022

I can understand a lot of the more negative views posted here. The book is often quite pretentious and positively dripping with fashionably existentialist naval-gazing and obscure, enigmatic characters and situations - but I still liked it, dammit! I'm a sucker for off-beat novels with skewered love......more


Quotes

Praise for THE COLOR OF A DOG RUNNING AWAY


“Gywn has written a shadow book, a story that flies from rooftops and burrows into dungeons, as byzantine as Spanish history, as sensuous and unpredictable as a design by Gaudi.”
—Keith Donohue, author of THE STOLEN CHILD

"It had me gripped from the first page. That clear resonant prose has an hypnotic effect. An entertaining story which draws the reader into a startling range of moods—meditative, comic, sexy, suspenseful, always enigmatic—and won't let go precisely because it is so well-written. There's so little fiction about that excites me these days that it's a joy to find a book I couldn't put down."
—Lindsay Clarke, Whitbread Prizewinner, author of THE CHYMICAL WEDDING, THE WAR AT TROY, THE RETURN TO TROY

“Clever, stylish and supremely entertaining . . . this novel offers a feast of sophisticated pleasures and a taste of deeper passions too.”
The Independent


“The simple, lilting prose…draws the reader deeper and deeper into the story and before you realize, you’re lost in the narrow streets of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter with only the author’s evocative descriptive prowess to guide you. And guide you he does, with an effortless charm, through a maze of mystery, love, and lies.”—Book and Magazine Collector

“Superior lifestyle porn.”
The Times (London)

“The best novel of the year.”
The Bookseller