GOOD DOGS DON'T MAKE IT TO THE SOUTH POLE

Derek Perkins is a versatile narrator, but here the Englishman must not just sound Danish--he has to be a dog. The fictional Tassen's mistress is a widowed librarian who seeks to comprehend mortality by researching the many dogs explorer Roald Amundsen murdered on his race to the South Pole. Tassen once belonged to the late retired major who loved the widow. So that's how Perkins sounds, bemused but loyal, though he's knee-high and missing that opposable thumb. Largely helpless in the novel's tragic closing scenes, the dog bears witness, which may finally be all that anyone can do. For him, his mistress's life has meaning, a meaning Perkins makes us feel. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2021]