Last night
the winner of the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize was announced. It went to Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis.
This $25,000 prize “recognizes Canadian writers of exceptional talent
for the year's best novel or short-story collection” as selected by a judging
panel.
The book “begins
with a bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo: “that animals would be even more
unhappy than humans are if they were given human intelligence.” This leads them
to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs overnighting at a
Toronto veterinary clinic. Suddenly capable of more complex thought, the pack
is torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking and those who embrace
the change. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into their newly
unfamiliar world, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles
with new thoughts and feelings. By turns meditative and devastating, charming
and strange, André Alexis's contemporary take on the moral fable offers a
compelling and affecting look at the beauty and perils of human consciousness” (http://writerstrust.com/Awards/Rogers-Writers--Trust-Fiction-Prize.aspx).
The Jury’s
Citation: “In Fifteen Dogs – André Alexis’ powerful apologue – questions of
knowledge and happiness, fidelity and fate are grounded in the real-world
adventures of a group of dogs. Here is a beautifully written allegory for our
times: one in which man’s best friend shows us the benefits of higher
consciousness – the favoured bone of fact buried where we might all find it. Fifteen Dogs is an original and vital
work written by a master craftsman: philosophy given a perfect form” (http://writerstrust.com/Awards/Rogers-Writers--Trust-Fiction-Prize.aspx).
Fifteen Dogs is also on the Scotiabank Giller shortlist;
the winner will be announced next Tuesday, November 10.
For the
other four finalists, check my blog of September 29, and for the winners of the
other six prizes awarded by the Writers’ Trust of Canada, check out their website: http://writerstrust.com/News/Events-(1)/Writers--Trust-Awards.aspx.
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