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A Dog Named Christmas
A Dog Named Christmas
Nov 15, 2025 2:07 AM

Author:Greg Kincaid

A Dog Named Christmas

When Todd, a developmentally challenged young man still living on his parents' Kansas farm, hears that a local animal shelter is seeking temporary homes for its dogs during the holiday week, he knows exactly what he wants for Christmas.

Animals are Todd's first love, and his persistence quickly overwhelms his father's objections to befriending a canine, a reluctance that proves to have a painful origin.

The family takes in a very special animal, and the shelter's Christmas adoption programme soon grows larger than anyone had hoped. By the story's end, Todd, with the help of a dog named Christmas, has taught an entire community the transformative power of goodwill and shared love - a lesson for all seasons.

Reviews

Slight in volume and big in heart, this sentimental tale ... is the perfect Xmas gift for dog lovers ... If you loved Louis De Bernieres' Red Dog, you'll love this.

—— Your Choice Magazine

Here's a book to curl up with in front of the fire!

—— Dogs Today

Big, beautiful, ambitious… His prose is addictive and enchanting

—— Los Angeles Times

Larsen has wit, intelligence, empathy and imagination. What he turns his clear gifts to next promises to be fascinating

—— Stuart Kelly , Scotland on Sunday

Chameleonic, ambitious, epic, fantastical, whimsical, thought-provoking, arcane, philosophical, exhaustive, and completely bonkers — these are just some of the words that could be used to describe I Am Radar… Unquestionably one of the more adventurous entries into the literary landscape

—— Boston Globe

One of our most highly anticipated novels of the year

—— Time Out New York

I am Radar provides oldfangled delights. Larsen can describe humanity at its worst…but his lightness of touch and enjoyably complex characters keep you hoping for the best

—— James Kidd , Literary Review

Larsen has wit, intelligence, empathy and imagination

—— Scotland on Sunday

Balances exciting stories with celebrations about the powers of electricity and political art.

—— Randy Boyagoda , Guardian

Gripping ... masterly ... Larsen is an effortless magician, and his performance here is a pure delight

—— Publishers Weekly

The much-travelled Osborne delivers on a load of levels, not least his characters, who can ooze silky menace, or be totally soulless, desperate or lost. All are convincing in the setting of the exotic, once-deadly country. And with his easy and vivid descriptions, this masterpiece will give you prickly heat rash

—— 5 stars , Sunday Sport

Dramatic and involving, an exhilarating adventure crafted in crisp, sharp prose. Osborne gives us rich swathes of local colour … Most of all, it is Robert and his precarious fate that keep us rapt. On the first page he is described as having ; "the aura of poverty about him"; roughly two hundred pages later his beloved Sophal tells him he is spooking people: "They say you have an aura of disaster about you." He does and it’s powerful; once the novel’s momentum kicks in, we’re with him all the way until the bitter end

—— Literary Review

Mesmerising

—— Tatler

The man making writing dangerous again

—— Shortlist

Very fine...an excellent addition to the literature of personal displacement. Grappling with manifold questions about identity and the tragic futility of material aspirations in a ruthless, brittle world, this novel draws you into a sun-struck realm where the survival of the fittest is more predicated by chance and where violence is a sudden, opportunistic enterprise

—— Douglas Kennedy , New Statesman

The best writer you’ve never heard of, Osborne is hitting mean form as a writer of exotic literary thrillers. … Sensual, dream-like and gripping

—— Monocle

This is an elegantly told story that will keep you intrigued until you hit the back cover

—— Emerald Street

An atmospheric read

—— Robert Dex , UK Press Syndication

It’s with expert control of the narrative here that [Osborne] captures a life adrift

—— Anita Sethi , Observer

Dark, teasing, elegantly written book

—— Harriet Fitch Little , Financial Times

Darkly sinister, threatening and compelling, this is one you’ll come back to again and again

—— Chris Kirkman , Shortlist

Alive with malice and grace, this is a taut tale reminiscent of the nightmares of Patricia Highsmith

—— MrsD-Daily

Prey and predators circle in lush southeast Asian settings that gleam with Osborne’s dazzling skill as a travel-writer

—— Peter Kemp , Sunday Times

It shines with intrigue, with investigations into the nature of the non-rational, and evil, wrapped up in taught plotting

—— Arifa Akbar , Independent

One of Britain’s most accomplished novelists.

—— Ed Cumming , Observer

An ingenious and atmospheric novel.

—— Simon Shaw , Mail on Sunday

Lawrence Osborne is an experienced, competent author with an impressive knowledge of Asia… Comparisons with Graham Greene seem to be generously offered by other reviewers and I’ve already alluded to Conrad and a Patricia Highsmith yet my impression is that Mr. Osborne has a style all of his own.

—— Gill Chedgey , Nudge

McCarthy has put his finger on something, and he’s nailed it very precisely. It’s how we live now. All the information we process every day. What it’s doing to us.

—— William Leith , Evening Standard
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