Elizabeth McKenzie The Dog of the North

About the author:

Elizabeth McKenzie’s novel The Portable Veblen was longlisted for the National Book Award for fiction and received the California Book Award. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Tin House, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and others. McKenzie is the managing editor of Catamaran and senior editor of the Chicago Quarterly Review.

About the book:

In the slyly humorous novel The Dog of the North, Penny Rush has problems. Her marriage is over; she’s quit her job. Her mother and stepfather went missing in the Australian outback five years ago; her mentally unbalanced father provokes her; her grandmother Dr. Pincer keeps experiments in the refrigerator and something worse in the woodshed. But Penny is a virtuoso at what’s possible when all else fails. In Penny’s quest for a fresh start, there will be a road trip in the Dog of the North, an old van with gingham curtains, a piñata, and stiff brakes. There will be injury and peril. There will be questions: Why is a detective investigating her grandmother, and what is “the scintillator”? And can Penny recognize a good thing when it finally comes her way?

Author photo by Donna Farkas.

CHECK OUT BOOK