The Boy and the Dog

Description

“An amazing, beautiful book . . . It shows how one dog’s dignified presence can bring connection and love to a fractured world.” ―Cat Warren, New York Times bestselling author of What the Dog Knows

One dog changes the life of everyone who takes him in on his journey to reunite with his first owner in this inspiring novel about the bond between humans and dogs and the life-affirming power of connection.

Dogs had a special relationship to humans. . . . They understood the human heart and were attuned to it in a way no other creature was.

Following a devastating earthquake and tsunami, a young man in Japan finds a stray dog outside a convenience store. The dog’s tag says “Tamon,” a name evocative of the guardian deity of the north. The man decides to keep Tamon, becoming the first in a series of owners on the dog’s five-year journey to find his beloved first owner, Hikaru, a boy who has not spoken since the tsunami. An agent of fate, Tamon is a gift to everyone who welcomes him into their life.

At once heartrending and heartwarming, intimate and panoramic, suspenseful and luminous–and deepened in its emotion by the author’s mastery of the gritty details and hardscrabble circumstances that define the lives of the various people who take Tamon in on his journey–this bestselling, award-winning novel weaves a feel-good tale of survival, resilience, and love beyond measure.Winner of the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Translation Prize

“A most extraordinary novel . . . An instant classic . . . It feels like The Odyssey . . . but from a dog’s point of view. . . . It really stays with you.” ―NPR’s Dog Talk

“Sure, you may have read a dog-finding-their-way-home story before, but this one is special. . . . [The dog] enchants and helps each of his temporary owners on his way home, and we imagine he’ll do the same for you.” ―Shondaland

“Moving . . . Dog lovers will need no encouragement to pick [it] up.” ―The Sydney Morning Herald

“A delightful read. It’s heartbreaking, it’s funny, it’s sad―it really covers all of the emotions. . . . It’s an incredible novel—I really loved every moment of it.” ―Christopher Hermelin, So Many Damn Books (podcast)

“Much like the love of our dogs, this fable about a lost dog and his epic journey to find home is a gift to us all.” ―Steven Rowley, New York Times bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus and The Celebrants

“A remarkable story of the transformative power of a dog. Like a figure from myth or fable, the dog inspires in the very flawed humans he encounters a desire for a new life, a new chance—and he just may do the same for you.” —Susan Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of One Good Dog

“A must read for any dog lover, this story of companionship, perseverance, and an incredible journey to find a long-lost friend speaks to our canine counterparts’ innate ability to sense the times of our deepest need.” —Ben Moon, author of Denali: A Man, a Dog, and the Friendship of a Lifetime

“A highly original and unsentimental novel about the powerful bond between humans and dogs.” ―Helen Humphreys, author of And a Dog Called Fig

“A preternaturally intelligent dog, but lost all the same, in a tsunami-ravaged Japan, is called many names by many people. Lose yourself in this story of a dog finding his way home, and in the stories of the lives he changes. No one stays the same, least of all the reader.” ―Michelle Latiolais, author of Even Now, Widow, and She

“Heartwarming and suspenseful, detailing true resilience and survival.” ―Belfast Telegraph

“A moving account of a lost dog . . . Inspiring . . . Life-affirming.” —AsiaOne

“Its plain and honest prose . . . allows you to fill in the spaces with your own lived experience, especially if you’ve had a lasting bond with a beloved animal who profoundly changed your life.” —The Waterloo Region Record

“Heartrending . . . Powerfully demonstrates how love and loyalty can overcome obstacles . . . and how a dog’s love can save a person in every possible way.” ―Booklist

“Affecting . . . Moving . . . Never feels sentimental or overdrawn . . . [Seishu Hase] proves himself a gifted storyteller.” ―Publishers Weekly

“Heartbreakingly moving in its simplicity . . . A touching meditation on shining lights in the face of trauma and hopelessness.” ―Kirkus ReviewsSeishu Hase has published many bestselling novels in his native Japan, a number of which have been adapted for film. He has been nominated six times for the Naoki Prize, awarded biannually to the best work of popular fiction, and finally won it for The Boy and the Dog, which has sold a quarter of a million copies in Japan and is being adapted for film and published around the world. 

Alison Watts is the translator of the novels What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa, Spark by Naoki Matayoshi, and The Aosawa Murders and Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight by Riku Onda. She is a longtime resident of Japan.

1. In the novel’s first part, “The Man and the Dog,” Kazumasa is offered the chance to earn a lot of money, which he urgently needs to take care of his sister and ailing mother. However, to do so, he has to partake in criminal activity. If you were in Kazumasa’s place, do you believe you would make the same decisions he does? If you were his sister, Mayumi, how would you feel about Kazumasa’s choices?

2. In the second part, “The Thief and the Dog,” we are introduced to two people who come to Japan from other countries: Miguel, a thief, and Hami, a truck driver who agrees to drive Miguel partway to his destination. What kind of relationship do you see between Miguel’s and Hami’s conditions as foreigners, and the situation of Tamon, who has been displaced from his home?

3.

Much like Kazumasa’s mother, Miguel appreciates Tamon because he reminds him of a dog from his past, Shogun. What similarities do you see between Tamon and Shogun, in terms of what each brings to their owners’ lives? In what ways do you see Miguel change due to the influence of Tamon?

4. We learn that, like Kazumasa, Miguel turned to a life of crime because of a desperate personal situation. What point do you feel that the author is trying to make about Miguel, Kazumasa, and others like them? Is it a perspective that you agree with? Why or why not?

5. In the third part, “The Couple and the Dog,” Taiki says to Tamon, “Sae forgives me, so I can’t help it,” referring to his role in his faltering marriage with his wife. Knowing Sae’s side, do you feel that Taiki is correct in his assumption? What do you feel his statement says about the future of their relationship? Do you feel that Tamon’s presence has any influence on Sae and Taiki, both as a couple and as individuals? Do you think that Tamon may have deliberately caused Taiki to trip and fall on the mountain?

6. Many of the book’s characters come from the margins of society, in terms of their social status and socioeconomic class. Why do you believe, then, that they are each so willing to take on the additional burden of feeding and caring for an animal? How does the extremity of the characters’ personal situations heighten the pathos of the book? In what ways do you think that this choice of character demographic relates to the author’s background as a writer of noir mysteries?

7. Toward the end of the fourth part, “The Prostitute and the Dog,” we learn that Miwa committed a serious crime. What emotions does it seem are most prominent in Miwa in the aftermath—guilt, fear, relief? Why do you feel that she chooses to turn herself in? Do you feel that you would have made the same decisions if you were in her place?

8. In the fifth part, “The Old Man and the Dog,” Yaichi muses on Tamon’s/Noritsune’s arrival, hypothesizing that the dog arrived because he “caught a whiff of death and loneliness.” What do you think of his conclusion, given the story so far? Why do you believe Tamon may have decided to make so many stops along the way of his long journey?

9. Nature is a powerful force in this novel, both as an adversary and an ally. Displaced as he is by the tsunami, Tamon also exhibits an instinctual closeness to nature, particularly his compasslike ability to track the person he is searching for. How would you describe the relationship between Tamon and the natural environment? How about between the novel’s human characters and the environment, especially in light of the fact that so many of them live in rural areas—and some even make their living off of the land?

10. What are Yaichi’s reasons for refusing treatment? What do you think of his decision to keep his illness from his daughter, Misako? Do you think it was right of Mr. Tamura to tell Misako about Yaichi’s illness without Yaichi’s permission?

11. We learn in the novel that Tamon’s name is short for “Tamonten,” a Buddhist deity worshipped as the guardian of the north. How do you see Tamon embodying his namesake? Considering both the larger catastrophe of the tsunami and the characters’ individual struggles, what do you think the author might be saying about dogs’ ability to offer people comfort in the face of crises beyond human control and even comprehension?

12. Throughout the novel, many of Tamon’s temporary owners have conversations with him, sharing their hopes, fears, and personal stories. Why do you feel that his owners speak to him as they would to another human? What do you make of the fact that Tamon answers to any name? To what extent do you feel that Tamon’s character is a projection of his owners’ own longings? In the book’s final part, why do you think that Hikaru begins speaking only once he is reunited with a being that has no capacity for speech?

US

Additional information

Weight	13 oz
Dimensions	1.1400 × 5.2600 × 7.3100 in
Author	Alison Watts, Seishu Hase
Imprint	Viking
Format	General Trade
ISBN-13	09780593300411
ISBN-10	0593300416
Audience	General / adult
BISAC	FIC071000, FIC108000
Subjects	detective novels, gifts for dog lovers, dog books, literary fiction, cozy, mystery and suspense, natural disasters, tsunami, earthquake, suspense books, crime books, dog book, animal stories, gifts for animal lovers, chapter books, Dog lover gifts, classic literature, fiction books, books fiction, japanese books, FIC108000, dog books for adults, Dogs, animal, adventure, crime, drama, fiction, detective, action, suspense, mystery, Animals, Literature, Friendship, animal books, pets, murder, novels, Japanese, action adventure, FIC071000, Japan, dog