The Lost Dog

The Lost Dog
	First edition
Author	Michelle de Kretser
Cover artist	Ampersand Duck[1]
Country	Australia
Language	English
Publisher	Allen & Unwin, Australia
Publication date	2007
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	345 pp
ISBN	978-1-74175-339-4
OCLC	177704074
Dewey Decimal	823/.92 22
LC Class	PR9619.4.D4 L67 2007
Preceded by	The Hamilton Case

The Lost Dog is a 2007 novel by Australian writer Michelle de Kretser.[2]

Plot

Tom Loxley is holed up in a remote bush shack trying to finish his book on Henry James when his beloved dog goes missing. What follows is a triumph of storytelling, as The Lost Dog loops back and forth in time to take the reader on a spellbinding journey into worlds far removed from the present tragedy.

Awards

Commonwealth Writers Prize, South East Asia and South Pacific Region, Best Book, 2008: shortlisted
Barbara Jefferis Award, 2008: shortlisted
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, 2008: winner
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Book of the Year, 2008: winner
Australian Literature Society Gold Medal, 2008: winner
Man Booker Prize, 2008: longlisted
Victorian Premier's Literary Award, Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, 2008: shortlisted
Australia-Asia Literary Award, 2008: longlisted[3]

Reviews

Reviewing the novel for The New Statesman, Jane Shilling noted: "Reading The Lost Dog, one is torn between contradictory urges - to race ahead, in order to find out what happens, and to linger in admiration of de Kretser's ravishing style."[4]

In The Guardian, Carmen Callil stated her opinion upfront: "This is my favourite kind of novel. It is full of incident and character, tells a gripping story, has many touches of brilliance and can make you laugh and wonder. But it is also mightily flawed...These lapses aside, the language is full of light, colour and precise observation and, better still, the author can handle ethical and political concerns with a light touch."[5]

Interviews

Robert Dessaix on ABC Radio National's The Book Show from November 2007.
Fiona Gruber interview in The Sydney Morning Herald from November 2007.
Rosemary Neill interview in The Australian from March 2008.
In conversation with Gail Jones at the 2008 Sydney Writers' Festival in May 2008.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] ttp://ampersandduck.blogspot.com/2007/11/covering-story.html

[2] National Library of Australia - The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser

[aala-3] Australia-Asia Literary Award 2008 Archived 2008-11-20 at the Wayback Machine

[4] "Mourning and loss" by Jane Shilling, The New Statesman, 5 June 2005

[5] "When a dog goes walkabout" by Carmen Callil, The Guardian, 27 July 2008