



Stray Dogs
And Other Stories
-
-
3.5 • 8 Ratings
-
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE
From the internationally acclaimed author of the novels De Niro’s Game, Cockroach, Carnival and Beirut Hellfire Society, here is a captivating and cosmopolitan collection of stories.
In Montreal, a photographer’s unexpected encounter with actress Sophia Loren leads to a life-altering revelation about his dead mother. In Beirut, a disillusioned geologist eagerly awaits the destruction that will come with an impending tsunami. In Tokyo, a Jordanian academic delivering a lecture at a conference receives haunting news from the Persian Gulf. And in Berlin, a Lebanese writer forms a fragile, fateful bond with his voluble German neighbours.
The irresistible characters in Stray Dogs lead radically different lives, but all are restless travelers, moving between states—nation-states and states of mind—seeking connection, escaping the past and following delicate threads of truth, only to experience the sometimes shocking, sometimes amusing and often random ways our fragile modern identities are constructed, destroyed, and reborn. Politically astute, philosophically wise, humane, relevant and caustically funny, these stories reveal the singular vision of award-winning writer Rawi Hage at his best.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Beirut-born, Montréal-based novelist Rawi Hage (author of the Giller-nominated De Niro’s Game) brings his unflinching honesty and dark humour to this stunning collection of 11 short stories. Hage invites us into the lives of fascinating, quirky characters who are on transformative journeys. We absolutely loved the casual surrealism of stories like “Bird Nation,” where civilians in Beirut grow literal wings to rise above the daily struggles caused by politicians and the military. The provocative “Stray Dogs” finds a Jordanian expat arguing about photography and philosophy with his father in startling and approachable terms. Whisking us around the globe, Stray Dogs unveils truths about the human experience every step of the way. It’s a funny, disturbing, and endlessly fascinating read.