The Pets review

The Complete Review reviews The Pets, from Open Letter. This is the one of the first six that I found most intriguing, as most of it is narrated from beneath a bed.

The Pets tells the parallel and overlapping stories of Emil and Havard, as Havard goes to visit Emil, and Emil, just returned from a trip to London, ducks under his bed to avoid him. Most of the novel is narrated by Emil, who describes his flight back from London -- with a talkative passenger, Armann, whose glasses he mistakenly pockets next to him, as well as a girl from his past, Greta, whom he casually hits on after they arrive (despite having a girlfriend who is waiting to hear from him) -- and then what he observes and hears from under his bed.