Dog Boy by Eva Hornung

Dog Boy by Eva Hornung

Four-year-old Romochka is alone, the apartment dark and empty. His mother vanished some time ago, and now his uncle too has not returned. The whole building is empty and cold. Snow begins to fall outside, but after a few days, hunger drives Romochka out into the Moscow cold, his mother's voice ringing in his ears. Don't talk to strangers. Overlooked by passers-by, he stands, shivering and indecisive, on the threshold. Suddenly he sees a large, yellow dog loping past and, on impulse, he follows her to her lair in an abandoned church outside the city. During the long, icy winter and the seasons that follow, Romochka changes from a boy into something far wilder. Under the watchful gaze of his dog-mother, he becomes part of the clan. He learns to see in the dark, eat anything the dogs find, attack enemies with tooth and claw, and understand the strict pack code. When he begins to hunt with his dog siblings in the city, he is drawn inexorably back into the world of human beings. It is only a matter of time before the authorities take an interest Eva Hornung's extraordinary tale of a latter-day Romulus in post-perestroika Russia is a devastating story of childhood, survival, family and life on the harsh edges of society.

'In exploring what it might be like to be a dog from a human perspective, Dog Boy sheds much light on what it is like to be humanUtterly compelling and believable' Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi 'In Dog Boy Hornung has imagined that struggle with unflagging control and an absence of sentimentality. The chillingly symmetrical conclusion of the novel erases any easy hopes of consolation. The novel is a strange, sombre, sobering triumph' Sydney Morning Herald 'This is an amazing feat of imaginative power on Hornung's part, a book that traverses every sensation from delight to utter heart-break The true strength of this remarkable book is that Hornung encourages us to question where exactly the border between animal and human is located' Canberra Times

Eva Hornung is the author of The City of Sealions, Fire Fire, Hiam (winner of the Australian/Vogel Literary Award), and Mahjar. She lives in Australia.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780747599050
ISBN 10	074759905X
Title	Dog Boy
Author	Eva Hornung
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Year published	2010-01-18
Number of pages	304
Prizes	Short-listed for Prime Minister's Literary Awards (Australia): Fiction 2010
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable