Living and Dying with Dogs is about people falling in lonely little spots and rotting for your edification; it's an invitation to come along on a journey from war to epidemic to famine. There are no great morals here, no uplifting messages; only a hesitant, unsure narrator who drifts, stumbles, and sketches the poetry of human decay.

Be warned: An uncomfortable honesty is at play here. Far removed from the misery, we can have another drink, earn more money, and turn a blind eye. And while the notion that the horrors of this world start with each of us is not a pleasant thought, don't worry — the flaw has been with us forever. It's how we're wired.

And on and on it will go, until it stops.