The Dog: A Novel

Fleeing the lifestyle of his Manhattan law firm world and the girlfriend with whom he recently ended a relationship with, the hero of this novel sets out for Dubai to accept a position as the “family officer” of the wealthy Batros family. He spends his days ignoring an onslaught of CC:d emails and trying to take a teen-aged Batros “intern” under his wing. His nights are spent alternatively staring out of his luxury apartment’s floor-to-ceiling windows at the inevitable and ubiquitous Dubai construction and interacting with the expat community and other foreigners in Dubai there to serve them.

O’Neill, who himself grew up traveling and living abroad, provides us with unique insights into the comfortable loneliness to be found in the individual progress in a community of expats. At the same time, this is a sobering reflection on the class distinctions that exist between the well-off professional class of people in Dubai (and New York) and the servant class who silently construct their luxury lifestyle.