How long does it take to read The Friend?
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez takes about 4 hours to read at 250 words a minute.
About 4 hours
A weekend read
First published 2018. 218 pages, about 59,950 words.
8 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 6 hours 40 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 4 hours |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 30 minutes |
The page count is the median across 2 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
When a woman unexpectedly loses her lifelong best friend and mentor, she finds herself burdened with the unwanted dog he has left behind. Her own battle against grief is intensified by the mute suffering of the dog, a huge Great Dane traumatized by the inexplicable disappearance of its master, and by the threat of eviction: dogs are prohibited in her apartment building. While others worry that grief has made her a victim of magical thinking, the woman refuses to be separated from the dog except for brief periods of time. Isolated from the rest of the world, increasingly obsessed with the dog's care, determined to read its mind and fathom its heart, she comes dangerously close to unraveling. But while troubles abound, rich and surprising rewards lie in store for both of them.
Subjects: Fiction, Human-animal relationships, Female friendship, Grief, Fiction, general, Friendship, fiction