Canine Lit Goes Highbrow
by Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 2/25/2008
In 2006, PW heralded a new strain of chick lit: dog lit, wherein pups play big roles in the lives of their stiletto-wearing, serial-dating owners. Now the trend has moved literary, with three forthcoming serious novels featuring dog and wolf narrators.
| The Labrador Pact by Matt Haig (Viking, Feb.) | Promise of the Wolves by Dorothy Hearst (S&S, June) | The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (Harper, May) | |
| Narrator | Prince, a Labrador retriever | Kaala, a wolf | Enzo, a Lab terrier mix |
| Plot | Prince serves as a morality watchdog as the humans around him grapple with concerns of work, money, love and adolescence. | Kaala is the last in a bloodline charged with watching over humans to prevent them from losing touch with nature. | Enzo idolizes his owner, Denny, and tries to hold Denny’s family together through illness and an ugly custody battle. |
| Animal-Lit comparisons | Animal Farm, Watership Down | Watership Down | Charlotte’s Web |
| Buzz | Viking calls Pacta “word-of-mouth hit in Europe”; film rights sold to Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company. | S&S bought the book—the first in a three-book series—in an aggressive preempt; international rights sold in seven countries. | Sara Gruen (Water for Elephants) blurb; first page of galley features a letter from Harper v-p Jennifer Barth. |
