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 other previous books include Asylum, Beauty and Sadness, Ingrid & the Wolf and, most recently, Pastoral, which was also nominated for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and was named a Globe and Mail Top 100 book of 2014. In addition to the Scotiabank Giller Prize, Fifteen Dogs has also been awarded the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. [scotiabankgillerprize.ca]Synopsis: ...it begins: 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 newly unfamiliar world, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles with new thoughts and feelings. Wily Benjy moves from home to home, Prince becomes a poet, and Majnoun forges a relationship with a kind couple that stops even the Fates in their tracks.
Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis
Published by: Coach House Books
Published date: April 14, 2015
Softcover
Orig. price: $17.95 USD
Print run: unknown, assumed small (I could only find listings for 2nd printings @ Abebooks.com)
Winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize
Winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize
Starred review from Publishers Weekly