Book Club: January 6, 2025, 2-4pm, – Fellows and External Fellows

January 6, 2024, 2-4pm, – Fellows and External Fellows

Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis (2015)

Discussion Leader: Meg Fox

André Alexis offers “an utterly compelling and affecting look at the beauty and perils of human consciousness “in this amusing but serious novel that was shortlisted for Canada Reads 2017 and won the 2015 Giller Prize. It opens with a bet between two Greek gods having a drink at the Wheatsheaf Tavern in Toronto:

— 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.

And so it begins: a bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs over-nighting at a Toronto vet-erinary 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 newly unfamiliar world, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles with new thoughts and feelings. 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.. By turns meditative and devastating, charming and strange, Fifteen Dogs shows you can teach an old genre new tricks. (Available in paperback and audio editions; 175 pages)

The link to register is https://forms.office.com/r/KBw7yhZFKZ

The deadline to register is the Monday morning the day of the event at 8 am. The Zoom link will be sent to registrants only.

If you have any questions, please contact the organizer – Linda Hutcheon at l.hutcheon@utoronto.ca.