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WINNER OF CANADA READS
WINNER OF THE GILLER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZE
A special edition celebrating the tenth anniversary of André Alexis's modern masterpiece, with a foreword by Eileen Myles and an afterword by André Alexis.
- I wonder, said Hermes, what it would be like if animals had human intelligence.
- I'll wager a year's servitude, answered Apollo, that animals – any animal you like – would be even more unhappy than humans are, if they were given human intelligence.
A bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto veterinary clinic. Suddenly capable of more complex thought, the pack is torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old 'dog' ways, and those who embrace the change. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into their transformed world, as they become divided, as each struggles with their new existence.
First published in 2015, now slightly revised and including an afterword by the author, this contemporary take on the apologue offers an utterly compelling and affecting look at the beauty and perils of human consciousness. By turns meditative and devastating, charming and strange, Fifteen Dogs shows you can teach an old genre new tricks.
WINNER OF CANADA READS
WINNER OF THE GILLER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE WRITER'S TRUST FICTION PRIZE
'A huge discovery for me. I found it enthralling and totally unexpected. I don't even want to describe it because I think readers should just pick it up.' – Susan Choi, author of Flashlight
'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.' – Publishers Weekly, starred review
'An elegant cross-breed of magical realism, moral fable, owner's manual and philosophical treatise … This is a wonderfully weird and spare reflection on the nature of dogs and poetry.' – Times Literary Supplement
'André Alexis's work displays a mastery of literature's history and a startling power of invention, balancing intellectual sophistication with a sense of humor, pathos and beauty … But while his work deals in paradoxes and tropes borrowed from long-dead thinkers, Alexis has time and again proven himself to be a provocative and modern thinker; his work feels ever current, even as it delivers all the humour and warmth of a well-told tale.' – Windham-Campbell Prize citation
'Over the course of this novel, slim yet epic in scope, Alexis chronicles the fates of these strangely afflicted beasts, shifting from thought experiment to comic parable to something more delicate, laden with detail, discovery and emotional nuance.' – The Globe and Mail
'[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.'– Kirkus Reviews
'The novel is a tender and elegant exploration of the perpetual problem of human consciousness … What unites us in consciousness is also what divides us, our sense of our own separateness from everyone, and everything, else.' – National Post
'Here is a beautifully written allegory for our times: one in which man's best friend shows us the benefits of higher consciousness – the favoured bone of fact buried where we might all find it. Fifteen Dogs is an original and vital work written by a master craftsman: philosophy given a perfect form.' – Writers' Trust Fiction Prize jury citation
'In the same vein as George Orwell's Animal Farm, Fifteen Dogs reveals universal truths about human natur
WINNER OF THE GILLER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZE
A special edition celebrating the tenth anniversary of André Alexis's modern masterpiece, with a foreword by Eileen Myles and an afterword by André Alexis.
- I wonder, said Hermes, what it would be like if animals had human intelligence.
- I'll wager a year's servitude, answered Apollo, that animals – any animal you like – would be even more unhappy than humans are, if they were given human intelligence.
A bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto veterinary clinic. Suddenly capable of more complex thought, the pack is torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old 'dog' ways, and those who embrace the change. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into their transformed world, as they become divided, as each struggles with their new existence.
First published in 2015, now slightly revised and including an afterword by the author, this contemporary take on the apologue offers an utterly compelling and affecting look at the beauty and perils of human consciousness. By turns meditative and devastating, charming and strange, Fifteen Dogs shows you can teach an old genre new tricks.
WINNER OF CANADA READS
WINNER OF THE GILLER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE WRITER'S TRUST FICTION PRIZE
'A huge discovery for me. I found it enthralling and totally unexpected. I don't even want to describe it because I think readers should just pick it up.' – Susan Choi, author of Flashlight
'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.' – Publishers Weekly, starred review
'An elegant cross-breed of magical realism, moral fable, owner's manual and philosophical treatise … This is a wonderfully weird and spare reflection on the nature of dogs and poetry.' – Times Literary Supplement
'André Alexis's work displays a mastery of literature's history and a startling power of invention, balancing intellectual sophistication with a sense of humor, pathos and beauty … But while his work deals in paradoxes and tropes borrowed from long-dead thinkers, Alexis has time and again proven himself to be a provocative and modern thinker; his work feels ever current, even as it delivers all the humour and warmth of a well-told tale.' – Windham-Campbell Prize citation
'Over the course of this novel, slim yet epic in scope, Alexis chronicles the fates of these strangely afflicted beasts, shifting from thought experiment to comic parable to something more delicate, laden with detail, discovery and emotional nuance.' – The Globe and Mail
'[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.'– Kirkus Reviews
'The novel is a tender and elegant exploration of the perpetual problem of human consciousness … What unites us in consciousness is also what divides us, our sense of our own separateness from everyone, and everything, else.' – National Post
'Here is a beautifully written allegory for our times: one in which man's best friend shows us the benefits of higher consciousness – the favoured bone of fact buried where we might all find it. Fifteen Dogs is an original and vital work written by a master craftsman: philosophy given a perfect form.' – Writers' Trust Fiction Prize jury citation
'In the same vein as George Orwell's Animal Farm, Fifteen Dogs reveals universal truths about human natur