The Cowboy Dog by Nigel Cox

An extremely strange but absorbing novel. In many ways similar to the comic Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks, it is a myth of a bit of New Zealand that doesn't actually exist.

Specifically, it's about a young man who grew up as a cowboy on the volcanic plateau of the North Island. But it's not the plateau we actually know - it's a chunk of the US Southwest circa 1910 or so, just smack in the middle of what is otherwise a normal contemporary New Zealand.

The story itself is about growing up and revenge, the kind of thing you might hear in a Johnny Cash song (and those songs get a lot of references in the book too).

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