#43
Title: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
Author: David Wroblewski
Genre: Fiction
Challenges: 100+, Read and Review, Pages Read, A-Z, Fill in the Gaps, Support Your Local Library, Audiobook, New Author
Rating: A+
Published: 2008
Dates read: 6/21/09 - 7/8/09
# of CDs/hours: 18/21.75
Read by: Richard Poe

From the back cover, “Author David Wroblewski‘s brilliant debut novel has earned an impressive collection of starred reviews and drawn glowing praise from established authors. After reading the book, Stephen King said, ’ won’t read another one this good for a long, long time.’

“In the remote reaches of northern Wisconsin, young Edgar Sawtelle and his family raise a unique breed of intelligent, companionable dog. Into this idyllic setting strolls Uncle Claude -- a charmer with a touch of menace. When Edgar’s father dies, Edgar and a loyal pack of dogs escape to the backwoods, suspecting Claude has committed murder. But no matter where they run, they cannot avoid the creeping hand of fate.

“Evoking Hamlet while remaining startlingly original, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is an immediate classic.“

I stayed up nights listening to this spell-binder, weeping at the tender moments, holding my breath at other times so enraptured was I. Then I went back and re-read/re-listened to the prologue. Because this is book my f2f group will discuss later this month I wanted the book as well. It helped, too, when the tracks of the CD were unintelligible to have the book handy to fill in the blanks. And I learned how to pronounce Chequamegon (Shoe wam a gun) which is a real National Forest as is the town of Mellon.