The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

A contemporary retelling of Hamlet of stark and striking brilliance set on a farm in remote northern Wisconsin.

I flat-out loved The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, and spent twelve happy evenings immersed in the world David Wroblewski has createdAs I neared the end, I kept finding excuses to put the book aside for a little, not because I didn't like it, but because I liked it too much; I didn't want it to end. Dog-lovers in particular will find themselves riveted by this story, because the canine world has never been explored with such imagination and emotional resonance. Yet in the end, this isn't a novel about dogs or heartland America–although it is a deeply American work ofl literature. It's a novel about the human heart, and the mysteries that live there, understood but impossible to articulate.

Yet in the person of Edgar Sawtelle, a mute boy who takes three of his dogs on a brave and dangerous odyssey, Wroblewski does articulate them, and splendidly. I closed the book with that regret readers feel only after experiencing the best stories: It's over, you think, and I won't read another one this good for a long, long time.

In truth, there's never been a book quite like The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I thought of Hamlet when I was reading it (of course…and in this version, Ophelia turns out to be a dog named Almondine), and Watership Down, and The Night of the Hunter, and The Life of Pi - but halfway through, I put all comparisons aside and let it just be itself.

I'm pretty sure this book is going to be a bestseller, but unlike some, it deserves to be. It's also going to be the subject of a great many reading groups, and when the members take up Edgar, I think they will be apt to stick to the book and forget the neighborhood gossip. Wonderful, mysterious, long and satisfying: readers who pick up this novel are going to enter a richer world. I envy them the trip. I don't re-read many books, because life is too short. I will be re-reading this one.

Stephen King

David Wroblewski lives in Colorado with the poet Kimberly McClintock

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780007265022
ISBN 10	0007265026
Title	The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
Author	David Wroblewski
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	HarperCollins Publishers
Year published	2008-07-07
Number of pages	576
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.