Fifteen Dogs

WINNER OF THE 2015 GILLER PRIZE

WINNER OF THE 2015 WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZE

A special edition celebrating the tenth anniversary of André Alexis’s modern masterpiece, with a foreword by Eileen Myles and an afterword by André Alexis.

— I wonder, said Hermes, what it would be like if animals had human intelligence.

— I'll wager a year's servitude, answered Apollo, that animals – any animal you like – would be even more unhappy than humans are, if they were given human intelligence.

A bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo 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, preferring the old ‘dog’ ways, and those who embrace the change. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into their transformed world, as they become divided, as each struggles with their new existence.

First published in 2015, now slightly revised and including an after-word by the author, this contemporary take on the apologue offers an utterly compelling and affecting look at the beauty and perils of human consciousness. By turns meditative and devastating, charming and strange, Fifteen Dogs shows you can teach an old genre new tricks.