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Loading... The Dogs of Babel (edition 2003)by Carolyn Parkhurst
Work InformationThe Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
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![]() ![]() From the first page I really liked this book. It was different. The approach was fresh, the style good, and the subject matter grabbed my attention. I usually don’t reveal what happens in a book, but when it happens on the first page I consider it fair game. The main character’s wife climbs up an apple tree, falls, and dies. The only witness was their dog. Being a professor of linguistics, the bereaved husband decides to take a leave of absence from his teaching position in order to teach the dog to talk, so that he can find out what really happened the day his wife died. It seems outlandish because it is. At the same time, the characters are so well developed and the writing so clean that you don’t feel like you’re reading something crazy. About two thirds through the book, the plot takes a twist that I didn’t enjoy. It was a necessary turn; it moves the book along and brings the story full circle. However, if the author had found another way of doing this, The Dogs of Babel may have made it to my top ten favorite novels of all time. I would recommend this book, five stars. no reviews | add a review
'Here is what we know, those of us who can speak to tell a story: On the afternoon of October 21st, my wife, Lexy Ransome, climbed to the top of the apple tree in our back yard and fell to her death. There were no witnesses, save our dog Lorelei . . .' So begins this remarkable, unputdownable debut about a man faced with the sudden and inexplicable loss of the love of his life. Convinced that Lexy's death was not an accident, and driven by a desire to discover what really happened that October afternoon, Paul decides to embark on the only course of action he can possibly imagine. What follows is a luminous account of an extraordinary, magical love affair, and its aftermath. This is the story of a passionate woman and her irrepressible dreams; of a man who does not know how to begin to live without her; of an animal's loyalty and devotion, and of the desperate search for answers that leads them all to places they never expected to go. No library descriptions found. |
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![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
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