Daniel Davies

Jeremy Shepherd has reached post-ambition, giving up the trappings of his London life (flash job, flash cars, even flashier girlfriends) to move back to his home town and his parents'' house. By day, he is a low-level civil servant, chained to his desk and content to idle away the hours filing and answering emails. Anytown, England. Jeremy Shepherd has reached post-ambition, giving up the trappings of his London life (flash job, flash cars, even flashier girlfriends) to move back to his home town and his parents'' house. By day, he is a low-level civil servant, chained to his desk and content to idle away the hours filing and answering emails. There isn''t a lot to do in a small town, but the English are very resourceful and Jeremy quickly finds a hobby that delivers lots of fresh air and exercise.By night, he prowls local car parks to indulge in altogether more challenging pursuits - anonymous sex with strangers. This is no ordinary hobby - each encounter is tinged with a definite air of danger, as police stake out each site and the cloak of anonymity brings its own risks. As the scene''s night-time liaisons increasingly threaten the sensibilities of the local "Daily Mail" readers, things take a turn for the worse. Locals take a dislike to the illicit rendezvous and as the police step up surveillance, private pursuits risk becoming very public.

DAVIES DANIELThirty-nine-year-old Jeremy Shepherd trades it allthe bright lights of London, the high-profile editor position at a glossy mens lifestyle magazine, the BMW, the designer clothes, the jet-set vacations, the personal trainerto move back home with his parents in deep suburbia, in a provincial town youve probably never heard of. After telling his friends and co-workers that he would be teaching English in rural Ghana for two years, he settles into a desk job as a civil servant. The mind-numbing daytime work leaves him energy and clarity for his alternate lifestyle as The Shep in the swinging, a.k.a. dogging, community. In this detached first-person narration, Jeremy offers graphic descriptions of dogging contacts, rendezvouses, and etiquette, as well as his fellow regulars on the circuit: a former estate agent, a refugee, and an ex-boyband member clinging to popularity. Their biggest challenge is finding nooks and corners that the countrys surveillance cameras miss, that is until they are met with racism and violence. Even that tension is no match for the startling, jaw-dropping conclusion that overtakes both the narrator and reader. The Isle of Dogs is author Daniel Davies debut novel. Before turning to fiction writing, he worked as a curator at the British Museum and as an editor for the Lancet and the Evening Standard. Davies also taught English abroad in Barcelona, Prague, and San Sebastian.

Jeremy Shepherd vivía en Londres y era un treintañero y bien pagado editor de una revista para hombres, de las que crean tendencias, hasta que fue presa de una crisis existencial. A la hora de la verdad, Jeremy opto por una respuesta entre radical y minimalista. Renuncio a su trabajo, vendio su piso y volvio a vivir con sus padres a la oscura ciudad de provincias de la que se habia marchado años antes. Jeremy ha encontrado el sentido de su vida en el sexo y, mas especificamente, en la muy moderna -o quiza antiquisima- escena del cancaneo: follar mientras otros miran y mirar mientras otros follan. Cada noche se cepilla los dientes y se peina, se pone su traje negro y su camisa blanca y prepara su bolsa. Ya no lleva un ordenador, sino condones, lubricante y un platano para reponer energias. Se dirige a los lugares de encuentro, aparcamientos solitarios o deserticas vecindades de los centros comerciales, donde los aficionados a estas y otras nocturnidades burlan las camaras de los circuitos cerrados de vigilancia que intentan vivir la democracia del sexo, el instante del extasis, el momento de la sensacion verdadera... Divertida y estremecedora... Un retrato reconocible y caustico de la Inglaterra contemporanea, con un guiño dedicado a Ballard (Booksellers).