Our unforgettable anti-hero, Edward Dacres, is a pretentious misanthrope whose specialty is painting triangles. War has broken out and his fortunes in London have dwindled to nothing. So when a lucky case of mistaken identity gives him a chance to join a delegation to bring Art to the “Colonies,” Dacres naturally seizes the opportunity to make a fresh start in Canada. Little does he know that the prevailing climate of Toronto in 1939 is chillingly puritanical. Most of Toronto's good citizens have their thoughts on the war, and don't much care for his painted triangles. There is one exception, however: a beautiful heiress with an eye for art and the willful desire to save Dacres from himself.

By turns touching and satirical, Goya's Dog is a love story about gin, selfishness, and the self-sacrifice necessary for love.

“Sarcastic, self-destructive, yet strangely endearing, Edward Dacres is the best kind of anti-hero—the kind you can't forget. Who'd have thought a book about art and Toronto would be a page-turner? And yet it is, as we watch, riveted, to see if Dacres is going to fail or succeed. In crystaline prose, and with affectionate satire, Tarnopolsky deftly leads the reader forward, and twists this tale of a down-and-out British painter into a glorious celebration of life's simpler beauties.”
—Miguel Syjuco, Author of Ilustrado

Damian Tarnopolsky's style is essentially witty: it combines observation and action in a way that is so elegant, so articulate and yet light of touch that one is hardly aware of its complexity. And he has made a book about a troubled person and a particularly turbulent place in history, a book about Canada as seen by an Englishman, a book about art and war and desire, that is both funny and sad.
—Russell Smith