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WINNER OF CANADA READSWINNER OF THE GILLER PRIZEWINNER OF THE WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZEA special edition celebrating the tenth anniversary of André Alexis’s modern masterpiece, with a foreword by Eileen Myles and an afterword by André Alexis.
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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.
About the author
André Alexis was born in Trinidad and grew up in Canada. He is the author of the
Quincunx, comprised of five novels:
Fifteen Dogs, winner of the Giller Prize, CBC Canada Reads, and the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize;
Days by Moonlight, winner of the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize;
Pastoral; The Hidden Keys; and
Ring. His debut novel,
Childhood, won the Books in Canada First Novel and the Trillium Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. His other books include
Asylum, The Night Piece, Despair and Other Stories of Ottawa, and most recently
Other Worlds, longlisted for the Toronto Book Award. He is the recipient of a Windham Campbell Prize. He lives in Toronto.
