Familiaris

Spring 1919, and John Sawtelle's imagination has got him into trouble... again. Now John and his newlywed wife, Mary, along with their two best friends and their three dogs, are setting off for Wisconsin's north woods, where they hope to make a fresh start – and to live a life of meaning, purpose, and adventure. But the place they are headed for is far stranger and more perilous than they realize, and it will take all their ingenuity, along with a few new friends – human, animal, and otherworldly – to realise their dreams.

By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, mysterious and enchanting, Familiaris takes readers on an unforgettable journey from the halls of a small-town automobile factory, through an epic midwestern firestorm and an ambitious WWII dog training program, examining the dynamics of love and friendship, the vexing nature of families, the universal desire to create something lasting and beautiful, and of course, the species-long partnership between Homo sapiens and Canis familiaris.

About the Author

David Wroblewski is the author of the internationally bestselling novel The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, an Oprah Book Club pick, Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and winner of the Colorado Book Award, Indie Choice Best Author Discovery award, and the Midwest Bookseller Association's Choice award. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle has been translated into over 25 languages. He lives in Colorado with the writer Kimberly McClintock.

Reviews

"As we discovered last year with The Covenant of Water (over 700 pages), summer is the perfect time to fully immerse yourself in the world of a long novel – just make sure you leave extra room in your carry-on!" ―Oprah.com

"By taking us back to the origins of the Sawtelle family, Wroblewski has set a story-telling bonfire as enthralling in its pages as it is illuminating of our fragile and complicated humanity. Familiaris is as expansive and enlightening a saga that has ever been written" ―Tom Hanks

"'Suppose you could do one impossible thing,' John Sawtelle says in David Wroblewski's stunning new novel Familiaris. What would you do? Clearly, what the author would do and has done is write this impossibly wise, impossibly ambitious, impossibly beautiful book" ―Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize winner, author of the North Bath trilogy (Nobody’s Fool, Everybody’s Fool, and Somebody’s Fool

"Tender, ambitious, fierce, deeply human, and of course wonderfully canine, David Wroblewski's second novel is an American tour de force. A story spun out over generations, to be read for generations, this is a big brave book that is old-fashioned in the very best sense of the word" ―Colum McCann, National Book Award winner, author of Apeirogon, Let the Great World Spin, and American Mother

"A great American novel of people and passions and ideas – and, of course, dogs... Already having drawn comparisons to Russo, Irving, Strout, McCarthy, and Gilbert, with García Márquez added here, Wroblewski earns them all, amply rewarding readers who have been waiting impatiently for 15 years. For all the eons it may take to read it, this colossus of a book will own you, and you will weep to be freed" ―Kirkus starred review

Dimensions: 15.6 x 5.1 x 23.3 cm