From a Washington Post review by Ron Charles headlined “‘The Dog of the North’ finds a lovable woman in darkly funny straits”:

I’m in love with a grieving misfit driving around with a donkey-shaped piñata in an old van held together by duct tape. Her name is Penny Rush. She’s the hapless heroine of Elizabeth McKenzie’s new novel, and she’s something of a piñata herself. How long she’ll survive the beating that life’s been giving her is an open question in “The Dog of the North.”