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Book News | May 24, 2012

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When you are a young writer, or an unproven writer, you receive a great deal of well-meaning advice from people who don't write and can't understand... Continue »
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The Dogs of Babel

by Carolyn Parkhurst

The Dogs of Babel Cover

 

Staff Pick

Despite a few annoying detours — the story's romance is actually kindled in Disneyland — Parkhurst's story moves both mind and heart. What else does a novel need? If your answer is "a soulful Rhodesian Ridgeback named Lorelei," then this is the book for you. A fine piece of work.
Recommended by Martin M., Powell's Books on Hawthorne

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

When his wife dies in a fall from a tree in their backyard, linguist Paul Iverson is wild with despair. In the days that follow, Paul becomes certain that Lexy's death was no accident. Strange clues have been left behind: unique, personal messages that only she could have left and that he is determined to decipher.

So begins Paul's fantastic and even perilous search for the truth, as he abandons his everyday life to embark on a series of experiments designed to teach his dog Lorelei to communicate. Is this the project of a madman? Or does Lorelei really have something to tell him about the last afternoon of a woman he only thought he knew?

At the same time, Paul obsessively recalls the early days of his love for Lexy and the ups and downs of life with the brilliant, sometimes unsettling woman who became his wife.

Review:

"Try a novel you can't put down: The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst....This tightly woven tale has all the right stuff: romance, suspense, fantasy, and an ending that does not disappoint." Redbook

Review:

"A wonderfully original and richly imaginative novel that moves in unpredictable, continuously surprising — but perfectly reasonable — directions as it explores the ways that we are all masked from one another, masked even from those we love most. It's a mystery story of the most resonant kind, but it's also a love story and, at its core, about the quest of grief for meaning." Kermit Moyer, author of Tumbling

Review:

"The story is poignant and suspenseful, with richly drawn characters, including the soulful hound who seems to hold the key to the mystery." Parenting

Review:

"Carolyn Parkhurst's The Dogs of Babel — so luminous, heartbreaking, comic, and daring — is an astonishing debut. Parkhurst writes of love and loss, and, above all, of what we can and cannot know of one another, with power and deeply earned grace." Richard McCann, author of Ghost Letters

Review:

"The brilliance of Parkhurst's novel lies in the subtle buildup of emotion as Paul digs deeper and deeper to discover the truth about the woman he loved....The beauty of the novel lies in how powerfully that emotional wave hits the reader. An unforgettable debut." Booklist, starred review

Review:

"I read it without stopping, and I loved it completely." Anna Quindlen

Review:

"A heartbreaking exploration of memory and language, grief and redemption." Esquire

Review:

"A neatly, almost perfectly constructed novel." Time

Review:

"Parkhurst tells her tale with considerable skill...a humanistic parable of the heart's confusions..." Entertainment Weekly

Review:

"A poignant, affecting tale....Parkhurst delivers a remarkable debut in quiet, authoritative prose....Highly recommended." Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

Review:

"The Dogs of Babel is the most unique and imaginative book I have read in recent times. Parkhurst is a wonderful writer and her story is daring, tender and full of surprises as well as wisdom and insight. I simply could not put it down." John Searles, author of Boy Still Missing and Senior Books Editor of Cosmopolitan magazine

Review:

"Carolyn Parkhurst writes as well about talking dogs and square eggs as she does about the limits of language and the intractable mysteries of the self. The Dogs of Babel is a strange, beautiful and very moving novel that asks us to look, in equal measure, at the puzzle that is grief and the puzzle that is love." Elizabeth Graver, author of The Honey Thief and Unravelling

Synopsis:

In Paul's fantastic and even perilous search for the truth about his wife's death, he abandons his everyday life to embark on a series of experiments designed to teach his dog Lorelei to communicate. Could she really give him the answers he is looking for?
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
fiddle5000, January 1, 2012 (view all comments by fiddle5000)
My husband and I fought over whose turn it was to have the book. One of the best this year!
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jitterbugandthebeet, September 4, 2011 (view all comments by jitterbugandthebeet)
This will go down in history as one of my most favorite stories, ever. It is mysterious and haunting - seemingly a simple tale of a man's life with his wife and dog, and his quest to understand her death. The story becomes more complex when our teller turns to his dog, the only witness to his wife's death, to try to learn what happened by perhaps teaching his dog to talk. It sounds more than a little bizarre, I know, but the story itself is ... mesmerizing. The writing is beautiful and sad. I can't explain it more, or better, just to say, try it out. I am a dog lover and was horrified at the prospect of what fate may lie in store for our wonderful dog in this book, but rest assured it's all okay. Read it! Again and again. It's a mainstay on my bookshelf.
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Jessica Pittman, January 15, 2010 (view all comments by Jessica Pittman)
Grief can be a strange thing, and in The Dogs of Babel, you will be captivated by one man's journey through it. Parkhurst weaves a compelling story about a man who lost his wife under strange circumstances and only their dog was last to see her alive. He believes that the dog can be trained to talk, and he wants the dog to tell him what happened to his wife! I've never a read story like this, but it was a page turner! It is certainly one story you shouldn't miss!
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780316778503
Author:
Parkhurst, Carolyn
Publisher:
Back Bay Books
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Mystery & Detective - General
Subject:
Mystery-A to Z
Copyright:
2004
Publication Date:
20040631
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Language:
English
Pages:
264
Dimensions:
8.26x5.50x.77 in. .65 lbs.
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Related Subjects

Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
Fiction and Poetry » Mystery » A to Z
Languages » Foreign Languages » Spanish » Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z

The Dogs of Babel Used Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$3.95 In Stock
Product details 264 pages Back Bay Books - English 9780316778503 Reviews:
"Staff Pick" by ,

Despite a few annoying detours — the story's romance is actually kindled in Disneyland — Parkhurst's story moves both mind and heart. What else does a novel need? If your answer is "a soulful Rhodesian Ridgeback named Lorelei," then this is the book for you. A fine piece of work.

by Martin M.
"Review" by , "Try a novel you can't put down: The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst....This tightly woven tale has all the right stuff: romance, suspense, fantasy, and an ending that does not disappoint."
"Review" by , "A wonderfully original and richly imaginative novel that moves in unpredictable, continuously surprising — but perfectly reasonable — directions as it explores the ways that we are all masked from one another, masked even from those we love most. It's a mystery story of the most resonant kind, but it's also a love story and, at its core, about the quest of grief for meaning."
"Review" by , "The story is poignant and suspenseful, with richly drawn characters, including the soulful hound who seems to hold the key to the mystery."
"Review" by , "Carolyn Parkhurst's The Dogs of Babel — so luminous, heartbreaking, comic, and daring — is an astonishing debut. Parkhurst writes of love and loss, and, above all, of what we can and cannot know of one another, with power and deeply earned grace."
"Review" by , "The brilliance of Parkhurst's novel lies in the subtle buildup of emotion as Paul digs deeper and deeper to discover the truth about the woman he loved....The beauty of the novel lies in how powerfully that emotional wave hits the reader. An unforgettable debut."
"Review" by , "I read it without stopping, and I loved it completely."
"Review" by , "A heartbreaking exploration of memory and language, grief and redemption."
"Review" by , "A neatly, almost perfectly constructed novel."
"Review" by , "Parkhurst tells her tale with considerable skill...a humanistic parable of the heart's confusions..."
"Review" by , "A poignant, affecting tale....Parkhurst delivers a remarkable debut in quiet, authoritative prose....Highly recommended."
"Review" by , "The Dogs of Babel is the most unique and imaginative book I have read in recent times. Parkhurst is a wonderful writer and her story is daring, tender and full of surprises as well as wisdom and insight. I simply could not put it down."
"Review" by , "Carolyn Parkhurst writes as well about talking dogs and square eggs as she does about the limits of language and the intractable mysteries of the self. The Dogs of Babel is a strange, beautiful and very moving novel that asks us to look, in equal measure, at the puzzle that is grief and the puzzle that is love."
"Synopsis" by , In Paul's fantastic and even perilous search for the truth about his wife's death, he abandons his everyday life to embark on a series of experiments designed to teach his dog Lorelei to communicate. Could she really give him the answers he is looking for?
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