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Winner of the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize
Finalist for the 2015 Toronto Book Awards
Winner of the 2015 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize
"[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
"This might be the best set-up of the spring." – The Globe & Mail
"Andr� Alexis has established himself as one of our preeminent voices." – Toronto Star
— 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.
And so 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 vet�erinary 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.
Andr� Alexis's 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.
Andr� Alexis was born in Trinidad and grew up in Canada. 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.
- Sales Rank: #113748 in Books
- Published on: 2015-04-14
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.20" h x .60" w x 5.20" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 176 pages
Review
'[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
'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)
‘A novel about a pack of�talking dogs, you say? The very idea will most likely breed thoughts of insufferable whimsy, like those paintings of mutts playing poker, or of more or less effective satire, in the vein of Animal Farm. It’s a grand thing, then, that this spry novel by Canadian Andr� Alexis spends its 160 pages repeatedly defying expectations ... I’m far from being a dog person, but as a book person I loved this smart, exuberant fantasy from start to�finish.'
—Jonathan Gibbs, The Guardian
'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 & Mail
'A remarkable book. Insightful, wildly original and beautiful. Buy it.'
—Mark Medley, Books Editor at�The Globe & Mail
'Truly a privilege to read.'
—Wordfest Reviews
'Alexis takes up notions of language and consciousness on a fundamental level, and what it means to have both or one without the other.'
—Full Stop
'Alexis’s technical skills are extraordinary. His characters are diverse and expertly differentiated, and his sentence crafting is brilliant. ... I’m not ashamed to say that I cried at the end.'
—LitReactor.com
'A�clever and beguiling study of human nature through the eyes of dogs.'
—Largehearted Boy
'A�nimble rumination�on consciousness, language, love, and art.'
—Albert the Dog
The 2015 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize jury citation:
'In Fifteen Dogs – Andr� Alexis’ powerful apologue – questions of knowledge and happiness, fidelity and fate are grounded in the real-world adventures of a group of dogs. 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.'
The 2015 Giller jury citation:
'What does it mean to be alive? To think, to feel, to love and to envy? Andr�Alexis explores all of this and more in the extraordinary�Fifteen Dogs, an insightful and philosophical meditation on the nature of consciousness. It’s a novel filled with balancing acts: humour juxtaposed with savagery, solitude with the desperate need to be part of a pack, perceptive prose interspersed with playful poetry. A wonderful and original piece of writing that challenges the reader to examine their own existence and recall the age old question, what’s the meaning of life?'
About the Author
Andr� Alexis was born in Trinidad and grew up in Canada. 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.
Most helpful customer reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Human? Canine? Meaning of Life? Great novel, great questions. Must Read.
By Charles W Smith
Fifteen Dogs was this week awarded the Giller Prize. The jury said:
What does it mean to be alive? To think, to feel, to love and to envy? Andr� Alexis explores all of this and more in the extraordinary Fifteen Dogs, an insightful and philosophical meditation on the nature of consciousness. It’s a novel filled with balancing acts: humour juxtaposed with savagery, solitude with the desperate need to be part of a pack, perceptive prose interspersed with playful poetry. A wonderful and original piece of writing that challenges the reader to examine their own existence and recall the age old question, what’s the meaning of life?
In a refreshingly short 171 pages, Mr. Alexis packs as much — if not more — existential punch, metaphysical rumination, and philosophical insight as are contained in some novels that are 900 exasperatingly long pages — not to mention any names (you can click here if you must know) — but after having just finished one such behemoth of a fiction, I was delighted, intrigued, moved, enchanted, and challenged by Fifteen Dogs.
I am one of those who believe dogs to be of a higher order than humans. I spend a good portion of my life being companion to dogs who live with others, counting among the beings I love (and have loved) the most not a few canines. Thus, the premise of this novel (the following is from the publisher’s website) —
— 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.
And so 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 vet�erinary 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.
— was wonderfully interesting to me. Imbued with the same sort of consciousness as have humans, how would such colors of knowing alter the shades of awareness and behavior already present in dogs? And, too, given these new ways of contemplation and expression, would dogs find their lives improved?
Fifteen Dogs approaches these questions without the assumption that being human is better — which is what won me over, because I think there is some argument that dogs are kinder, smarter, more honest and reliable than are humans. Most touching — for me — my most “a-ha” moment — which was wrought both gently and too, finally, with a bang — was the pointing out of the possibility that it is perhaps in the naming and labeling of emotions and ways of being where the trouble begins, and where both the greatest joys and sorrows are born.
To love before one names it — as happens with infants and animals, the open, full-on, complete trusting and immersion — is a most blessed and beautiful thing. To have to speak of it to give it reality, is, I think, a limitation and a curse. And while I love my reading and my words, well, I also yearn for more in my life of the silent, words-not-required bursting of emotion I have with my dog-friends.
This is a beautiful book, the intricately complicated simplicity of which provokes an examination of one’s assumptions about the nature of reality and consciousness, of the meaning of Life and Love beyond language, outside of language, and how it is we manage — each of us with our own highly individualized frames of reference — to connect, to find agency enough inside our private realities to make the leap outside ourselves to a shared reality. And none of this is done in a portentous, heavy-handed way, but, rather, suggested in the context of a well-told story that made me laugh, cry, and think. This, for example as one of the main dogs, Majnoun, asks the god, Hermes, to explain what love is:
— What you want to know, Majnoun, is not what love means. It means no one thing and never will. What you want to know is what Nira meant when she used the word. This is more difficult, because Nira’s word is like a long journey taken by one woman alone. She read the word in books, heard it in conversations, talked about it with friends and family, Miguel and you. No other being has encountered the word love as Nira has or used it in quite the same ways, but I can take you along Nira’s path.
That (and the paragraph that follows it – which I almost included but I really want you to read this book) is gorgeous, wow, thoughtfulness and literature. Highly recommended.
Original review and links can be found on my blog: HERE WE ARE GOING, here: https://herewearegoing.wordpress.com/2015/11/11/reading-fifteen-dogs-by-andre-alexis/
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Lord of the Flies, with dogs
By Roger Brunyate
FIFTEEN DOGS recently won its author the Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada's richest award. Curious, I looked at the first page: "One evening in Toronto, the gods Apollo and Hermes were in the Wheatsheaf Tavern." What is this, the beginning of some joke? Looking further, I saw the story was mostly about dogs, fifteen of them at first, all duly listed in a "Dramatis Canes" cast list at the start. Oh dear, I thought; the last book I read gave me all the whimsy I could handle for a while…. But I was wrong, completely wrong. Just accept the premise, that the gods for a bet endowed a random group of dogs with human intelligence, and you will find yourself enmeshed in a book that is as brutal and thought-provoking as they come, a kind of LORD OF THE FLIES, only with dogs.
Thought-provoking, yes. Alexis calls this an Apologue, a word I had to look up. According to Wikipedia, it is "a brief fable or allegorical story with pointed or exaggerated details, meant to serve as a pleasant vehicle for a moral doctrine or to convey a useful lesson without stating it explicitly." One example they give is George Orwell's ANIMAL FARM which, though entertaining in manner, makes deadly serious political points (as indeed Golding's novel did a decade later). Alexis also moves quickly beyond the stage of entertainment. Of the fifteen dogs released from their animal shelter by Apollo and Hermes, three are afraid to leave the premises, and the rest soon break into murderous quarrels about how to handle their new gifts. It is not long before the fifteen have been reduced to half a dozen. One of the most shocking things is how quickly the so-called gifts of civilization can result in acts of utter brutality.
There are five substantial chapters in this short but dense book; although following a normal timeline, they are more like musical movements than episodes in a narrative. As in a symphony, most of the drama comes early. In the first movement, as I have indicated, the drama is political, about how the first dogs to practice rational argument -- or worse, puns and poetry -- immediately arouse the suspicion of the pack. The second is about two dogs who return to human companionship, but treat their hosts in very different ways; it also tells of the further attrition of the original pack. The third is about the birth of religious faith. In the fourth, and throughout, Alexis deals with the philosophy of language, from the traditional speech of growls and barks, through the new god-given dog language flexible enough to deal with abstract concepts, to some approximation of spoken English. There are echoes here of THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU by HG Welles, though without the Gothic overtones; Alexis is interested in how the acquisition of language changes one's sense of self, for both dogs and humans. The final chapter, both sad and very beautiful, is a meditation on death, happiness, and the purpose of life.
There is a touch of sentiment in these final pages, but Alexis comes to it honestly. He is careful not to anthropmorphize his animals, as most writers of animal stories do. No matter how sophisticated their thought, these creatures remain dogs in all their doggy habits of sniffing genitalia and eating excrement. Much more important is the insight to be gained by looking at human beings through canine eyes. One of the last survivors ponders at length what it means to be human. He cannot fully comprehend how anyone can live a life so limited in taste and smell, and where social structures are so subject to ambiguity and compromise. But we human readers catch glimpses of ourselves in what the dogs reflect, and the view is not always a comfortable one.* I can easily understand the thought of the Giller Prize committee: once FIFTEEN DOGS entered the competition, there simply wasn't anything else in the same ballpark.
*Though punctuated with humor throughout. See the first comment.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
"...many here among us who think life is but a joke" - Bob Dylan
By dennis wentraub
Spoiler alert: You will have a tear in your eye by the end of this metaphysical fantasy- more questions than answers, and pets bewildered by your renewed affection. Warning: this book is guaranteed to detonate arguments in book clubs and college dorms. Decades my have past since you read Greek mythology, but recall that their gods were capricious, whimsical, often meddling with the fates of earthly creatures, but also occasionally beneficent...so don't be surprised when you next drop into your favorite watering hole - here, The Wheat Sheaf Tavern at King and Bathurst (Toronto) - if your bearded bar mate downing the suds is really on a different plane, there to observe your behavior and make a wager on the nature of humanity. Among the questions quaffed in this fast moving animal tale are to what extent intelligence is a source of unhappiness. Do words and imagination only confound? Is it better to "think" or to "know" (instinct)? Is collective behavior a 'good' or is it just uniformity? Is a hierarchical order, a "geometry of dominance", a natural good that when challenged only leads to pain and unhappiness? Are we only true to our real nature without gods and governments? If you die with Hope in your heart, with pure loyalty to your master (mate?), can it be said that you were happy? And is love a natural evolution of loyalty? Ultimately - spoiler alert [2] -awareness of our mortality and a gift that allows us to love and be loved in return is the essence of our being - and that says this author cannot be extinguished.
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