The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
From AwardAnnals
| Book: | The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel |
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| Author: | David Wroblewski |
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| Publisher: | HarpersCollins Publishers |
Grief-stricken and bewildered, Edgar tries to prove Claude played a role in his father’s death, but his plan backfires—spectacularly. Forced to flee into the vast wilderness lying beyond the farm, Edgar comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who follow him. But his need to face his father’s murderer and his devotion to the Sawtelle dogs turn Edgar ever homeward.
David Wroblewski is a master storyteller, and his breathtaking scenes—the elemental north woods, the sweep of seasons, an iconic American barn, a fateful vision rendered in the falling rain—create a riveting family saga, a brilliant exploration of the limits of language, and a compulsively readable modern classic.
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Reviews
Amazon.com
It’s gutsy for a debut novelist to offer a modern take on Hamlet set in rural Wisconsin—particularly one in which the young hero, born mute, communicates with people, dogs, and the occasional ghost through his own mix of sign and body language. But David Wroblewski’s extraordinary way with language in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle immerses readers in a living, breathing world that is both fantastic and utterly believable. In selecting for temperament and a special intelligence, Edgar’s grandfather started a line of unusual dogs—the Sawtelles—and his sons carried on his work. But among human families, undesirable traits aren’t so easily predicted, and clashes can erupt with tragic force. Edgar’s tale takes you to the extremes of what humans must endure, and when you’re finally released, you will come back to yourself feeling wiser, and flush with gratitude. And you will have remembered what magnificent alchemy a finely wrought novel can work. —Mari Malcolm
Barnes and Noble
What is the essence of a dog? What is the meaning of a life? Edgar Sawtelle seeks to answer these questions in Wroblewski’s startlingly compelling, original, and yes, classic epic—a truly American novel guaranteed to win countless hearts.
Edgar lives a hard yet satisfying life breeding and training dogs with his parents on their northern Wisconsin farm. They’re continuing the work of Edgar’s grandfather, who created a new breed of dog—bred not for work or appearance but to embody the ineffable qualities of companionship and wisdom. Edgar has a mysterious bond with the Sawtelle dogs. Like them, he can hear and see and comprehend, but he cannot speak. He talks to the dogs in signs, and they respond to him.
Edgar’s idyll on the farm is interrupted with the appearance of his uncle, who resents Edgar’s father, and wants to usurp him. Evoking Hamlet, the biblical story of Cain and Abel, and Homer’s Odyssey to tell the story of Edgar’s harrowing journey from the safety of his home through the Chequamegon Forest and back again with his extraordinary canine companions, Wroblewski depicts a world—not so different from our own—where dogs teach their human counterparts far more than humans teach them, and together, they find meaning.
