The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of his friend Marilyn Monroe, By Andrew O'Hagan

It has been said that if cats could talk, they wouldn't. But actually, says Mafia Honey – the Maltese terrier hero and narrator of Andrew O'Hagan's fourth novel – they versify. "We [dogs] usually hate cats, not for the typical reasons, but because they show an exclusive preference for poetry over prose." Butterflies also have a Nabokovian turn of phrase, there are bedbugs who profess to have ...