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Weaknesses: I'm not much for narratives told from a dog's perspective, and I somehow missed where Misha was the son of Zoya. After the whole regurgitated worm thing, I found it a little hard to concentrate. Chernobyl, 1986. The world is coming to an end. Dragged from her bed in the middle of the night, Natasha is forced to leave her beloved puppy behind and has no idea if she’ll ever return home. Although parts of the novel follow Natasha as she grows up and examines how the loss of her pup changes her as she gradually loses hope, the bulk of the action takes place away from humans. We're given brief insights into how Zoya survived those early days but this is really Misha's story, beginning when he and his malformed brother, Bratan are the only survivors of their litter. Anthony McGowan never patronises his young readers with long explanations or heavy information, with this being a subtle but powerful indication of the birth defects and neonatal deaths caused by radiation poisoning. As the pups grow they experience important life lessons and the dramatic scenes of peril are complemented by the day-to-day pressures of finding enough food to survive. There is humour to be found here too, with their first savoury soup meal sure to amuse and disgust in equal measure! Every literary festival stays in an author’s mind for slightly individual reasons. I shall remember the Oxford festival for: McGowan's ambition to write a realistic survival story about dogs in Chernobyl paid off. Writing a story with animals as main characters, with the only dialogue coming from human characters, and having it be just as heartfelt, engaging, and anxiety-inducing as if it were humans is no easy feat. Yet McGowan pulls it off. He conveys different personalities from these animals, and I could easily distinguish them from one another, despite them not speaking any words.
Dogs of the Deadlands Keith Robinson Illustration - Dogs of the Deadlands
For more posts like this, here’s the link: https://thechrysalisbrewproject.com/category/bookish-posts/. Disclaimer and Disclosure Giles Tremlett España: A Brief History of Spain Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 10:00am Sun 2 Sunday, 2 April 2023 See this event
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The Carnegie medal winner McGowan is superb at stories about children who do not have all the advantages.’ Sunday Times
Dogs of the Deadlands - Booktopia Dogs of the Deadlands - Booktopia
The Oxford Literary Festival has in my mind become the leading literary festival of the year. The organisation, the roster of speakers, the ambience and the sheer quality of it all is superb. May it now go from strength to strength each year stretching its ambition more and more. I believe it will.
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Steeped in Richard Adams’ Plague Dogs and Watership Down, yet wearing all the hallmarks of Barry Hines at his finest, Dogs of the Deadlands is a wonderful thing. It moved me and stayed with me for an awfully long time.’ Phil Earle, author of When the Sky Falls
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