Publication
New York : Ecco, c2008.
Original publication date
2008-06-01
2008
Status
Available
Call number
Description
A tale reminiscent of "Hamlet" that also celebrates the alliance between humans and dogs follows speech-disabled Wisconsin youth Edgar, who bonds with three yearling canines and struggles to prove that his sinister uncle is responsible for his father's death.
Physical description
566 p.; 24 cm
Genres
Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2010)
Audie Award (Finalist — 2009)
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — 2008)
Indies Choice Book Award (Winner — 2009)
Colorado Book Award (Winner — Literary Fiction — 2009)
Center for Fiction First Novel Prize (Shortlist — 2008)
Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (Fiction — 2008)
Christian Science Monitor Best Book (Fiction — 2008)
Booklist Top of the List: Best of Editors' Choice (Audio — 2008)
Oprah's Book Club selection (2008)
Language
Media reviews
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is a dutiful procession through the main events of [Hamlet]. The Mousetrap scene, in which Edgar trains his dogs to act out his father’s murder in front of Claude, is marvelous—Wroblewski loves writing about dogs and he’s great at it—but the other pages are still
Show More
covered by translucent drafter’s blueprints. Here’s Polonius, the meddler, here’s Laertes, the avenging son, and so on. (The Laertes figure isn’t introduced until page 489 and he’s as puzzled as the rest of us about why he’s supposed to kill a fourteen-year-old boy.) Wroblewski is only at pains to apply himself when there’s a chance his characters might become complicated and unsympathetic. Show Less
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, all 566 pages, is surprising and rewarding. It's worth savoring, both its story and its storytelling.
Booklist
High literary art from a talent that bears watching.
Publishers Weekly
This is the best book I've read in a long time.
Kirkus Reviews
[A] spellbinding first novel . . .
Kirkus Reviews
The novel succeeds admirably in telling its story from a dog's-eye view that finds the human world very strange indeed.
Library Journal
Ultimately liberating, though tragic and heart-wrenching, this book is unforgettable; overwhelmingly recommended for all libraries.
Publishers Weekly
Sustained by a momentum that has the crushing inevitability of fate, the propulsive narrative will have readers sucked in all the way through the breathtaking final scenes.