We Think the World of You

Frank, the narrator, is a middle-aged civil servant, intelligent, acerbic, self-righteous, angry. He is in love with Johnny, a young, married, working-class man with a sweetly easygoing nature. When Johnny is sent to prison for committing a petty theft, Frank gets caught up in a struggle with Johnny's wife and parents for access to him. Their struggle finds a strange focus in Johnny's dog-a beautiful but neglected German shepherd named Evie. And it is she, in the end, who becomes the improbable and undeniable guardian of Frank's inner world. We Think the World of Youis known for its extraordinary mixture of acute social realism and dark fantasy, and was described by J. R. Ackerley himself as "a fairy tale for adults."

J. R. Ackerley (1896-1967) was for many years the literary editor of the BBC magazine The Listener. His works include three memoirs, Hindoo Holiday, My Dog Tulip, and My Father and Myself (all available as NYRB Classics).

P.N. Furbank is the author of Diderot and, with W.R. Owens, A Political Biography of Daniel Defoe.