Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-01
• Released on: 2008-06-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 576 pages

Amazon.com
Amazon Best of the Month, June 2008: 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

Book Description

Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar's lifelong friend and ally. But with the unexpected return of Claude, Edgar's paternal uncle, turmoil consumes the Sawtelles' once peaceful home. When Edgar's father dies suddenly, Claude insinuates himself into the life of the farm--and into Edgar's mother's affections.

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.

Double Life, with Dogs: An Amazon Exclusive Essay by David Wroblewski

We write the stories we wish we could read. There's no other reason to do it, to spend years pacing around your basement, mumbling, pecking at a keyboard, turning your back on a world that offers such a feast of delicious fruits. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle came about because some time ago I wished I could read a novel about a boy and his dog, one that integrated our contemporary knowledge of canine behavior, cognition, and origins with my experience of living with dogs; if possible, something flavored with the uncynical Midwestern sense of heart and purpose so familiar from my childhood (and something which, in truth, I've spent much my adult life being slightly ashamed of, as if either heart or purpose were embarrassing attributes for a grown-up to display). I'd recently come to know a good dog, maybe the best dog I'd ever met, and the subject of people and dogs and ethics and character suddenly seemed urgent. But when I went looking for such a story, I had to go back almost a hundred years, back to Jack London's Call of the Wild. That was a surprise. A little while after that, an idea for a story came to me--not the whole thing, but enough to start.

Continue Reading Double Life, With Dogs

Praise from Stephen King

"I flat-out loved The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, and spent twelve happy evenings immersed in the world David Wroblewski has created. As 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 of 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, 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."

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. A literary thriller with commercial legs, this stunning debut is bound to be a bestseller. In the backwoods of Wisconsin, the Sawtelle family—Gar, Trudy and their young son, Edgar—carry on the family business of breeding and training dogs. Edgar, born mute, has developed a special relationship and a unique means of communicating with Almondine, one of the Sawtelle dogs, a fictional breed distinguished by personality, temperament and the dogs' ability to intuit commands and to make decisions. Raising them is an arduous life, but a satisfying one for the family until Gar's brother, Claude, a mystifying mixture of charm and menace, arrives. When Gar unexpectedly dies, mute Edgar cannot summon help via the telephone. His guilt and grief give way to the realization that his father was murdered; here, the resemblance to Hamlet resonates. After another gut-wrenching tragedy, Edgar goes on the run, accompanied by three loyal dogs. His quest for safety and succor provides a classic coming-of-age story with an ironic twist. Sustained by a momentum that has the crushing inevitability of fate, the propulsive narrative will have readers sucked in all the way through the breathtaking final scenes. (June)
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From The New Yorker
Set in rural nineteen-seventies Wisconsin, this loose retelling of Hamlet focusses on Edgar, a boy born mute and with a preternatural ability to commune with the dogs whose breeding and training is his family’s business. Idyllic routine is threatened when Edgar’s ne’er-do-well uncle comes to live with the family, and the menace persists even after his sudden departure. Soon afterward, Edgar’s father dies of an apparent aneurysm; Edgar becomes convinced, but can’t prove, that his uncle—who soon inserts himself back into the family—is to blame. In this début novel, Wroblewski illustrates the relationship between man and canine (at times, from the dog’s point of view) in a way that is both lyrical and unsentimental, and demonstrates an ability to create a coherent, captivating fictional world in which even supernatural elements feel entirely persuasive.
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Customer Reviews

Is an American "Hamlet" possible?
I had my doubts at first about this very fine novel, whose plot loosely tracks that of "Hamlet." I've read Jane Smiley's "A Thousand Acres" (based on "King Lear"), and while it was fun to trace the correspondences on a first reading, that novel does not really hold up. It is far too contrived; one feels the novel is wrenched to fit Shakespeare's plot, at the expense of good writing. Wroblewski, on the other hand, handles the connections delicately, not hesitating to change or delete play details that don't suit his purpose, and sometimes you find yourself saying, AFTER you've read through a scene, 'Aha, that was the play within a play.' The characters of Claude, Trudy, Gar, and Edgar are entirely convincing in their own rights, and the lovely characterization of Almondine, a kind of cross between Ophelia and Horatio, is far deeper and more satisfying than the actual slender characterization of both these characters in the play. The use of the dog breeding business as setting is brilliant. As I sat on the porch reading, I kept looking over at my Labrador retriever with new appreciation! If anyone reading this is a teacher, it's worth knowing that this novel is quite appropriate for high school students and would make a great adjunct to a reading of "Hamlet." "Hamlet" is widely taught, particularly in the senior year, and "The Story of Edgar Wroblewski," with its young hero, will be a great way to engage students. As for the ending of this novel, it is spectacular, messy, and complicated, exactly like the play, and the final scene with Essay means "the rest is silence."

Hamlet with Dogs Doesn't Work
I am 3/4 through the book and don't believe I will finish it. I agree it is beautifully written, but I have read Hamlet a number of times and love dogs too much to see Almondine meet Ophelia's fate (I can see it coming).

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel
I found this novel to be a beautifully written tale of the unique relationships formed between dogs and their owner/companions. However, where there once was hope of vindication, and a future full of promise, I, as a reader (of what I thought would turn out to be a great American novel), felt totally cheated. Not that I think ALL stories should end with a happy face, but I didn't bargain for such hopelessness. I was totally taken by surprise, and not in a good way. I immediately had to start a new read to pull me out of the funk I was in.