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THE DOGS OF VIVO
- An astonishing new voice
- Categories:Urban Life
- Language:English（Translation Services Available）
- Publication Place:South Africa
- Publication date:May,2026
- Pages:357
- Retail Price:（Unknown）
- Size:（Unknown）
- Text Color:（Unknown）
- Words:（Unknown）
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Review
A Letter from Sven Axelrad
Dear Reader
The Dogs of Vivo follows a group of twenty-somethings who work/hang out in a bar and dream of making it big. I was a little younger than my characters when I started working in a bar. I had just signed up for a degree in accounting and took the job because I had no money of my own to account for. The bar I worked in wasn’t a classy place, but I liked it. It had a downtrodden charm to it. It no longer exists, long since sold, turned into a Hooters, but I remember it well. None of the people who worked there (not even me) knew I would become a writer and because of this they would become, in part, fictional characters. I doubt that they would’ve behaved any differently if they had. At the time I was loose-limbed, long-haired, quite shy. I smelled vaguely of sea salt, cigarettes and hope. I was also in love. That love, it turns out, was doomed to fail. As far as I’m aware, all young love is.
‘Everyone knows the world is far too unruly to submit to numbers. The human heart is much the same.’
Now, in my forties, I’m writing this author’s note from a small cubicle in a large corporate. We manufacture tampons here, lots of them. During the day, it’s my job to prepare financial results and to make sense of the world via numbers. There’s nothing wrong with this job, I’m lucky to have it, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s pointless – everyone knows the world is far too unruly to submit to numbers. The human heart is much the same. That’s why I started writing fiction. I’m in love again and have been for quite some time. Every day I quietly hope that True Love isn’t as doomed as Young Love.
When I started writing about Vivo, a town that bears some resemblance to Durban, Joburg, Cape Town, Lisbon and Madrid, I was feeling very alone and a little hopeless (all that accounting will do that to a man). As usual, I turned to art. I wasn’t sure what I would find in this town born from a lonely mind. To my relief and delight, I found that when the chips were down my characters almost always extended kindness to each other, imperfect, oftentimes mistaken, but still there it was, kindness beneath everything. In this way, founding the fictional town of Vivo has been the creative joy of my life.
Strange as it may seem, I couldn’t have written a novel about working in a bar when I worked in a bar. It’s only now that I’m older that I’m able to think clearly about what it meant to be young and working part-time, beautiful and doomed, dancing alongside my friends to some sweet and passing song, one hand raised, and what it means to be here now, still kicking, still beautiful in some way, beautifully ruined, beautifully full of memories. The novel in your hands is made of those memories, each one wild, dangerous and lovely. In The Dogs of Vivo, Art, Maggie and Felix are about to discover all this for themselves.
Welcome to Vivo,
Sven
Dear Reader
The Dogs of Vivo follows a group of twenty-somethings who work/hang out in a bar and dream of making it big. I was a little younger than my characters when I started working in a bar. I had just signed up for a degree in accounting and took the job because I had no money of my own to account for. The bar I worked in wasn’t a classy place, but I liked it. It had a downtrodden charm to it. It no longer exists, long since sold, turned into a Hooters, but I remember it well. None of the people who worked there (not even me) knew I would become a writer and because of this they would become, in part, fictional characters. I doubt that they would’ve behaved any differently if they had. At the time I was loose-limbed, long-haired, quite shy. I smelled vaguely of sea salt, cigarettes and hope. I was also in love. That love, it turns out, was doomed to fail. As far as I’m aware, all young love is.
‘Everyone knows the world is far too unruly to submit to numbers. The human heart is much the same.’
Now, in my forties, I’m writing this author’s note from a small cubicle in a large corporate. We manufacture tampons here, lots of them. During the day, it’s my job to prepare financial results and to make sense of the world via numbers. There’s nothing wrong with this job, I’m lucky to have it, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s pointless – everyone knows the world is far too unruly to submit to numbers. The human heart is much the same. That’s why I started writing fiction. I’m in love again and have been for quite some time. Every day I quietly hope that True Love isn’t as doomed as Young Love.
When I started writing about Vivo, a town that bears some resemblance to Durban, Joburg, Cape Town, Lisbon and Madrid, I was feeling very alone and a little hopeless (all that accounting will do that to a man). As usual, I turned to art. I wasn’t sure what I would find in this town born from a lonely mind. To my relief and delight, I found that when the chips were down my characters almost always extended kindness to each other, imperfect, oftentimes mistaken, but still there it was, kindness beneath everything. In this way, founding the fictional town of Vivo has been the creative joy of my life.
Strange as it may seem, I couldn’t have written a novel about working in a bar when I worked in a bar. It’s only now that I’m older that I’m able to think clearly about what it meant to be young and working part-time, beautiful and doomed, dancing alongside my friends to some sweet and passing song, one hand raised, and what it means to be here now, still kicking, still beautiful in some way, beautifully ruined, beautifully full of memories. The novel in your hands is made of those memories, each one wild, dangerous and lovely. In The Dogs of Vivo, Art, Maggie and Felix are about to discover all this for themselves.
Welcome to Vivo,
Sven
Feature
★Everything happens for a reason.
Description
The Mean Monsoon is a working bar. It’s not the nicest place, I know, but this is where we’ll meet three very important friends: Arturo the Writer, Maggie the Musician and Felix the Painter. Together they form the Unsung Company of Singers, Artists and Drinkers. Each has their own problems: Art loves Maggie but has a problem with his heart. Maggie loves music and dreams of fame but is a waitress at the Mean Monsoon, and Felix loves everyone but is currently homeless. They’ve all heard whispers that the devil has come to Vivo. They’re sure it’s nothing but Vivano superstition, until a mysterious well-dressed man arrives one night and changes everything. Art & the Devil is full of philosophical charm, dark humour, sex, bookstores, friendship, and a fair amount of compassion for the plight of the artist. In these pages you will find love and joy in abundance - our young friends cannot come to ruin without them.
Author
Sven Axelrad
Is an author, musician and accountant. His published novels are BURIED TREASURE (Penguin Random House SA, 2023), GOD’S POCKET (Penguin Random House SA, 2024), and THE NICOTINE GOSPEL (Penguin Random House SA,2025). He has been shortlisted for the Sunday Times Literary Prize, The HSS Best Emerging Writer Award, and the Book Lounge Book of the Year and he has been Longlisted for the SALA Award, the HSS Best Novel Award, and has represented South Africa at the Havana International Book Fair in Cuba. Axelrad is covered in literature-themed tattoos and currently lives in Durban where he works as a tampon accountant, and spends his free time with his wife and dog, a blind Yorkie named Zoe.
Is an author, musician and accountant. His published novels are BURIED TREASURE (Penguin Random House SA, 2023), GOD’S POCKET (Penguin Random House SA, 2024), and THE NICOTINE GOSPEL (Penguin Random House SA,2025). He has been shortlisted for the Sunday Times Literary Prize, The HSS Best Emerging Writer Award, and the Book Lounge Book of the Year and he has been Longlisted for the SALA Award, the HSS Best Novel Award, and has represented South Africa at the Havana International Book Fair in Cuba. Axelrad is covered in literature-themed tattoos and currently lives in Durban where he works as a tampon accountant, and spends his free time with his wife and dog, a blind Yorkie named Zoe.
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