A work of rare emotional clarity and grace, The Lady with the Dog confirms Carrie Tiffany as one of Australia’s most important and fearless literary voices.

An elderly couple are driving to the pound. At last, the old lady is getting a dog. The dog is driven through a gate in the fence to its new home. It goes to sleep in front of the black stove, but when it wakes, the old lady is confused. Doesn’t she already have a dog? The old lady slips a pair of pantyhose through the dog’s collar and walks it along the fence. For some reason the gate has disappeared. In the dog’s new home objects are uncoupling from their meaning. Is the dog still a dog? When the gate opens for the very last time will the dog go through?

With whimsical drawings from artist Noel McKenna, The Lady with the Dog is a homage to the exquisite sadness of Chekhov’s famous short story. A masterful novella about the importance of animals in language and life.

‘Magnificent.’ – Kate Grenville

Details

ISBN13: 9781761170843
Format: Hardback
Number of Pages: 112
Edition:
Publication Date: 01 Oct 2026
Publisher: NewSouth Publishing
Publication City, Country: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Dimensions (cm): 17.8(H)x12.7(L)
Weight (gm):

Author Biography

Carrie Tiffany was born in West Yorkshire and grew up in Western Australia. Her first novel, Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Guardian First Book Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and won the Dobbie Award for Best First Book and the WA Premier’s Award for Fiction. Her second novel, Mateship with Birds, was the winner of the inaugural Stella Prize and the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for fiction. Her third novel, Exploded View, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and won the Queensland Fiction Book Award. Noel McKenna’s works examine his version of suburban culture in its many guises. He is interested in the everyday, the unobserved, the underappreciated and the neglected. McKenna’s practice traverses media from drawing, prints, sculpture, painting, and both functional and non-functional ceramic ware. He has been the subject of several significant museum exhibitions and his work is held in many public, private and corporate collections.

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