Title:
The Lost Dog
Author:
Michelle de Kretser
Format: Paperback
Pages:
368
Publisher
: Allen & Unwin
Age
Range : 15+
ISBN
: 1741756065
Synopsis
The
main protagonist Tom Loxley is holed up in a remote bush cabin trying to finish
his book on Henry James when his dog goes missing. Set in present day Australia
and mid-twentieth century India. Nellie Zhang who is a highly regarded contemporary artist accompanies him and she is someone Tom would like to be more than just friends with.
Review
The
Lost Dog is a story of love and mystery, which
takes the reader on a spellbinding adventure from present Australia to India. The story has many layers, which are
beautifully entwined, on one level Tom must find his dog lost in the Australian
bush, he must understand himself as a migrant from India, begin to understand
Nellie, both as a artist and her past which is told in fragments throughout the
book and for Tom to understand his mother’s disabilities while at the same time
remain in the present time.
Overall it is a book, which grabs the reader and
places them on a quest, as it examines the weight of history as well as the
different ways of understanding the world.
In
the centre are two people Tom a divorcee and Nellie an artist who is tainted by
scandal and controversy and the facts behind her missing and presumed murdered
husband Felix dogging her.
At
story’s end most questions are answered as each piece is entwined in a well-written
story.
Final
Comment
The
book was shortlisted for the Young Person
Book Award of 2008 The Man Booker
Longlist; it won the Christina Steed Prize for fiction and
the NSW Premier Book of the Year in
2008. Shortlisted for the 2008 Vance
Price for Fiction (Victorian Premier’s Literacy Awards) and has been highly
recommended to be part of any literacy fiction collection.
While
not a book I have read before it is thought provoking and interesting. While
not relevant to my professional life it is relevant to readers of this age
group giving them a title which provides a reading experience of different
cultures and what it may feel like for a new arrival from India. The age group
rating attached to this book indicates the level of understanding required to
read this book, as some of the content is more adult than child. The readers of
this book would have reached a development stage where by they can understand
the language and the presumed setting of the storyline/s. I didn’t have
knowledge of this book before but I have knowledge of book awards, which are
awarded each year to different genres and different age groups.
The gaps in my knowledge
are not knowing the book title, which has been reviewed, but
after reviewing it I can ascertain that gap of knowledge has now been filled.