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Sense of Unease
Friday at Four follows a researcher who happens upon an unexpected method for communicating with his dog and discovers what it means to truly be understood. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I don’t know where the inspiration for this book came from. Somewhere on vacation in France, at some point, I was overcome by a great sense of unease. I had to go and buy a notebook and a pen, and I started writing. I just followed the flow of my thoughts.
Did you plan the tone and direction of the novel before writing, or did it come out organically as you were writing?
I never felt that I had any influence on this story. It was literally dictated to me. But I don’t know by whom or how. It was like a compulsion that had me in its grip for two years.
What experience in your life has had the biggest impact on your writing?
The slow death of a loved one.
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
I’m going to publish a very funny book about a failed art forger – before Christmas, I hope.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Website | Amazon
Few novels capture with such honesty the way love can be eroded by silence and then, in the face of death, renewed in its most fragile and essential form. This is not just a story about a man caught between two women, but about how we confront loss, and how even in the darkest moments tenderness and clarity can emerge. It lingers in the mind as a stark yet luminous meditation on what it means to live, to love, and to let go.
Friday at four is a powerful novel about love, betrayal, and the courage to face loss — written with clarity, honesty, and unforgettable emotional force.
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Friday at Four
Gert Richter’s Friday at Four opens as a story about a man, his marriage, and his dog, but it quickly becomes something far more mysterious. The narrator, David, is a researcher whose logical world begins to blur when he finds an unexpected way to communicate with his dog, Lea. What starts as an odd experiment turns into a quiet, haunting meditation on connection, identity, and what it really means to be understood. The novel moves gently between the ordinary and the uncanny, asking big questions in the smallest moments.
What I found most striking about this book is Richter’s ability to blend warmth with unease. The early scenes feel almost playful. David’s tone is ironic, funny, even a little smug, but slowly, the edges soften. There’s something raw and human beneath his intellect. Richter writes with an understated confidence that makes even the strangest moments feel believable. You can feel the pull between love and loneliness, curiosity and fear, running through every page.
The prose itself is clear and unhurried, yet full of quiet emotion. Richter’s descriptions of everyday things, a glance, a walk by the river, the silence after a conversation, carry a strange electricity. I found myself rereading certain lines just to feel their rhythm again. The book doesn’t lecture; it invites reflection. You sense the author’s fascination with how people and animals connect, how relationships can both reveal and dissolve who we are.
What makes Friday at Four memorable isn’t its plot, but its mood, the sense of drifting between clarity and confusion, between science and feeling. It’s not a loud book, but it lingers. I finished it feeling both calmed and unsettled, the way you might after a long, searching conversation that doesn’t quite end.
I’d recommend Friday at Four to readers who enjoy introspective fiction, books that take their time, that ask more questions than they answer. It’s especially for those who like stories that explore thought and emotion without ever spelling things out. If you’ve ever found yourself looking into your pet’s eyes and wondering what they see when they look back at you, this novel will feel strangely familiar.
Pages: 320 | ISBN : 978-2940364602
LITERARY TITAN 