Excerpt from The Last Man Standing by Davide Longo, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Leonardo looked down at his foot on the pedal. A nail had gone black where the old woman, sitting down at his table in the hotel, had accidentally placed the leg of her chair on it.

"Have you done anything for the dog's eyes?" Ottavio said.

Leonardo looked straight at him.

"What can be done?"

Ottavio shrugged.

"If you want my opinion, wash them with his own pee; he won't like it, but if you don't he'll never open them again, because they're full of parasites."

At Norina's grocery shop he bought some canned tuna, a couple of dairy products, some sardines, two packets of rusks, jam, and a box of pasta, then he got the baker to give him a French loaf and some baci di dama biscuits. There were no customers in either shop and the proprietors simply served him, took his money, and called him professor when they said good-bye.

Excerpted from The Last Man Standing by Davide Longo. Copyright © 2013 by Davide Longo. Excerpted by permission of Quercus. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.