The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is an incredible debut novel from author David Wroblewski. The book centers around a boy named Edgar who is born mute and trains dogs through sign language. His family owns and runs a very prestigious kennel of "Sawtelle" dogs, a highly specific, highly trained dog that gives new meaning to the word companionship.
Edgar has a passion and a true calling for training these dogs and it becomes very clear that he needs them as much they need him. His unwavering companion Almondine is the other half of his heart outside his body. The relationship of Edgar and Almondine will hit home with anyone who has found that special companion in a pet, it is a relationship hard to describe but of which the importance can never be understated.
One day an unforeseen tragedy occurs and changes the entire course of Edgar's life. He is forced to flee the only life he's known for one in the wilderness of Wisconsin. He finds himself lost within himself as a person but also on a quest to discover the truth and determine whether there is a path to reconciliation. He is forced to decide if he shall run forever from the past or find his way back home to confront it and the mysteries that lie there. Along his detour he finds fear, truth, wisdom, courage, and redemption in the most unlikely of places and people.
This book is extremely dense and will take some time to read through but the end result will leave your mouth open and your mind reeling. It will make you decide how and what you take away from it. The pages will teach you only what your willing to learn from it. It resolves itself but does not wrap up in a shiny bow with a typical "The End" cliche. It will challenge you, leave you potentially unsure, but all the while capturing little bits of your heart, mind and soul. Rarely do I find this kind of intellectual depth in novels and to me that's what makes one memorable; not the story itself, but the story it creates in my mind after the back cover has been turned over.
"Life was a swarm of accidents waiting in the treetops, descending upon any living thing that passed, ready to eat them alive. You swam in a river of chance and coincidence. You clung to the happiest accidents-the rest you let float by."
One of the better novels I've read period, certainly the best in recent readings. This one is something special.
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
By: David Wroblewski
562 pages
One day an unforeseen tragedy occurs and changes the entire course of Edgar's life. He is forced to flee the only life he's known for one in the wilderness of Wisconsin. He finds himself lost within himself as a person but also on a quest to discover the truth and determine whether there is a path to reconciliation. He is forced to decide if he shall run forever from the past or find his way back home to confront it and the mysteries that lie there. Along his detour he finds fear, truth, wisdom, courage, and redemption in the most unlikely of places and people.
This book is extremely dense and will take some time to read through but the end result will leave your mouth open and your mind reeling. It will make you decide how and what you take away from it. The pages will teach you only what your willing to learn from it. It resolves itself but does not wrap up in a shiny bow with a typical "The End" cliche. It will challenge you, leave you potentially unsure, but all the while capturing little bits of your heart, mind and soul. Rarely do I find this kind of intellectual depth in novels and to me that's what makes one memorable; not the story itself, but the story it creates in my mind after the back cover has been turned over.
"Life was a swarm of accidents waiting in the treetops, descending upon any living thing that passed, ready to eat them alive. You swam in a river of chance and coincidence. You clung to the happiest accidents-the rest you let float by."
One of the better novels I've read period, certainly the best in recent readings. This one is something special.
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
By: David Wroblewski
562 pages
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