While Apollo and Hermes constantly argue over the relationship between intelligence and happiness, the dogs face betrayal and loss of loved ones, continually fight over power and positions in the pack, and experience a new type of fear: of the world and humanity. Although the superiority of their newfound intellect proves beneficial for the dogs in many cases, the burden of human consciousness arises as an ever-present and oftentimes destructive factor in the novel. Being suddenly much more aware of their environment, social stratification, and effect on others, it becomes clear early on that the capacity for human intelligence entails much more than the ability to think logically. In posing the question of whether animals would die happier with the capacity of human consciousness, Alexis provides a bleak yet revitalizing tale of human mortality and the gift, or curse, of superior intelligence.Īs fifteen dogs in a kennel in Toronto suddenly awaken to a world full of color and an unfamiliar sense of awareness, readers are taken through the journey of what it might be like to live as an animal with a human intellect. Arguing over what sets humans apart from other animals, the gods settle by granting fifteen dogs the presumed gift of human intelligence. In a narrative that questions the righteousness of humanity, Alexis frames his novel around a disagreement between Zeus’s two sons, Apollo and Hermes, who argue about whether or not animals would be happier with the intellectual capacity of humans. ISBN 9781552453056Ĭanadian writer André Alexis invents a modern Greek mythology in his 2015 novel Fifteen Dogs, bringing together prose and poetry, consciousness and animal instinct, humans and dogs.

Wily Benjy moves from home to home, Prince becomes a poet, and Majnoun forges a relationship with a kind couple that stops even the Fates in their tracks.Įngaging and strange, full of unexpected insights into human and canine minds, this contemporary take on the apologue is the most extraordinary book you'll read this year.Toronto. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into unfamiliar territory, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles with new thoughts and feelings. They are torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old 'dog' ways, and those who embrace the change. Suddenly capable of complex thought, the dogs escape and become a pack. The gods Hermes and Apollo argue about what would happen if animals had human intelligence, so they make a bet that leads them to grant consciousness and language to a group of dogs staying overnight at a veterinary clinic. It begins in a bar, like so many strange stories. Winner of the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize 2015

Fifteen dogs by andré alexis