BOOK EXCERPT: The Dogs of Vivo: A coming-of-age tale with gothic charm in Sven Axelrad’s latest

Sven Axelrad’s fourth book is a blend of entertaining literary fiction, philosophical charm and gothic mystery set in the fictional town of Vivo.

The Dogs of Vivo centres on three ambitious but struggling twenty-something artists. Together, they spend their nights at a rundown bar, discussing books, music and their dreams of making it big. But things are about to change for these three friends with the arrival of a well dressed and enigmatic stranger. Here is an excerpt.

We begin on the street outside Vivo’s coolest bookstore. If we cup both hands, lean in and peer into the glass window, we will see the first of three very important people around whom this story revolves – a young man named Arturo seated behind a cash register, surrounded by wall-to-wall books. If we look a little longer, we’ll also see a dog curled up asleep in the corner.

The owners of the bookstore consider Arturo a perfectly adequate employee. When asked, he makes thoughtful recommendations and almost always compliments the buyer’s good taste, unless they’ve landed on some terrible but popular book. When this happens, which it often does, he politely says nothing. Some customers love his diffidence, but others find him aloof as he sits reading behind the cash register. As far as the owners are concerned, Arturo is a harmless dreamer, trustworthy and, most importantly, available. While they’re out of town, it’s Arturo’s job to lock the store at night and to look after their dog, whose name is also Arturo.

Arturo (the man) is currently trying to read, but every so often his eyes flick to the clock on the wall. Finally, at five minutes to nine, he dog-ears the page (top-right corner down for placeholding, bottom-right corner up for interesting quotes), touches his index and middle fingers to his lips and transfers this kiss to the small effigy of Doc Holiday that sits atop the register. What follows is the short, almost holy, ritual of closing a bookstore for the night. Arturo begins by washing his coffee mug in the small sink in the back, drying it and placing it on the Poetry shelf like a decoration. Next, he grabs the broom, a generic thing ubiquitous on the streets of Vivo. The informal broom market, much like the flower market, is so saturated in Vivo that the only way to differentiate oneself is with a unique sales pitch. In this way, our broom sellers could be said to dabble in theatre, which I suppose we all do, whether in the pursuit of love, ego or commerce. The bookstore already has a broom, but Arturo couldn’t help buying another when earlier today a bedraggled man poked