Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1848873328 ISBN 13: 9781848873322

Publisher: Atlantic Books, 2012

Dust-jacket reads: THE LEGEND OF THE LONELY DOG - Secrets and lies, the land of Alveridgea abounds in them. This is a story of music and passion, love and loss, defeat and victory. But his birth was not legendary. Abandoned on the cold steps of a Houndside orphanage, this small unhoundish pup grew up knowing nothing of his mother and father and everything about loneliness and sorrow. His was a hard-scrabble life on the working-class side of town, where motorbikes, vans mingled with milkmen and everything was faded, including dreams. Yet it was here that Lonely first heard the blues, gritty barbed-wire blues, leaking from clubs and honky tonk bars. And it was this music that became his lifeline and his destiny. Yet it came at a price. Bullied and misunderstood, Lonely was hounded from town and became a refugee in his own country. Rejected, hunted, he knew both prison bars and freedom's kiss. Some called him a troubadour, others a troublemaker. With a price on his head, all this shy reluctant hero cared about was the guitar on his back and his one true love. It is said Lonely Dog's songs became legends long before he did, but he caught up and the whole world listened. This is his story.

From the Author:

Ivan Clarke is a landscape painter and fine artist living in Queenstown, New Zealand. Stu Duval is a professional story teller and author, living also in New Zealand. The two have known each other since childhood. Alveridgea: The Legend of the Lonely Dog was accidentally inspired by Ivan's pet dachshund Arthur Snout.

Book Description:

Welcome to Port Alveridge. You'll notice something quite unusual about its inhabitants. Many of them are cats; and the ones that aren't cats, are dogs. Alveridgea and the Legend of the Lonely Dog is the irresistible tale of a little pup living in this cat-eat-dog world...

So what's Alveridgea like? Think one part Ugly Duckling; one part Raymond Briggs; one part West Side Story (but with much cuddlier characters); and at least three parts something totally, utterly, charmingly, off-the-wall different.