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Fiction writer Dan Rhodes discusses his new novel, Timoleon Vieta Come Home.

Rattling around his dilapidated farmhouse in the Italian countryside, faded composer and socialite Cockroft has only one constant companion: Timoleon Vieta, a loyal mongrel with beautiful eyes. When a handsome but surly individual arrives on the scene, Cockroft is forced to choose between his dog and the new arrival. He abandons Timoleon outside Rome's Coliseum, where the dog begins a long journey home.

Dan Rhodes has published two collections of short fiction: Anthropology: and a Hundred Other Stories (2000), which contains short, darkly humorous stories about romantic relationships, and Don't Tell Me the Truth About Love (2001), which consists of seven longer stories on a similar theme. Rhodes also was recently named by Granta one of 20 "Best Young British Novelists." Timoleon Vieta Come Home is his first novel.