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Vendor
Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
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FIFTEEN DOGS

André Alexis

One summer night in Toronto, Hermes and Apollo make a drunken bet about the possibility of human happiness. And so they grant human consciousness to a group of dogs overnighting at a veterinary clinic.
Having suddenly been granted more complex thought, the pack is soon torn between those who resist language, preferring their old "dog" ways, and those who embrace it. The gods watch from above as some of the dogs turn violently on one another until only three are left: wily Benjy moves from home to home, intelligent Majnoun finds a surprisingly human relationship with a kind couple, and Prince becomes a poet. For Hermes to win, one of the dogs must be happy at his death.

An utterly convincing and moving look at the beauty and perils of consciousness.

André Alexis was born in Trinidad and grew up in Canada. His debut novel, Childhood, won the Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Trillium Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. His books include Pastoral, Asylum, and Ingrid & the Wolf.
Available products
Book

Published 2015-04-01 by Coach House Books

Book

Published 2015-04-01 by Coach House Books

Comments

[Alexis] devises an inventive romp through the nature of humanity in this beautiful, entertaining read … A clever exploration of our essence, communication, and how our societies are organized.

FIFTEEN DOGS is the finalist for the 2015 Rogers' Writers Trust Fiction Price and shortlisted for the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize

Winner of the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize Read more...

Alexis manages to encapsulate an astonishing range of metaphysical questions in a simple tale about dogs that came to know too much. The result is a delightful juxtaposition of the human and canine conditions, and a narrative that, like just one of the dogs, delights in the twists and turns of the gods' linguistic gift.

UK: Serpent’s Tail/Profile, France: Denoel, Quebec: Quebec-Amérique, Sweden: Kalla Kulor, Taiwan: Azoth, China: ThinKingdom, Spain: Turner, Portugal: Lua de Papal, Holland: Meridiann/Atlas, Slovenia: sold