The Dogs of Winter
-
- £4.99
-
- £4.99
Publisher Description
When Mishka is abandoned on the streets of Moscow he falls in with a gang of other homeless children, hoping they’ll give him a chance of survival. But as winter freezes the city and food becomes scarce, he is left alone, to fend for himself.
Help comes in an unexpected form: Mishka is adopted by a pack of dogs. The creatures quickly become more than just his street companions, they are his family. But he can’t stay hidden from the world for ever . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As she did in A Dog's Way Home (2011), Pyron delivers a reflective, hard-hitting story about the bond between child and dog in this case, seven of them. Inspired by the real-life story of a boy who survived on the streets of Moscow in the mid-1990s, the novel exposes the plight of many homeless, orphaned Russian children after the fall of the Soviet Union. Mishka abandoned at age five by an abusive man who lived with (and presumably killed) Mishka's mother befriends a pack of bedraggled wild dogs; together, they beg and forage for food, sleep in metro stations, ride trains to stay warm, and avoid military personnel intent on capturing them. The book's emotional impact is immense; Mishka grapples with his identity as his memories of his mother gradually fade and he becomes increasingly feral. Though some scenes of Mishka and the dogs' trials can be a bit repetitive, their sameness underscores their unremitting and often heartbreaking battle to survive, day after day. Ages 10 14.
