Etna
A Novel
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4.6 • 29 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The best-reviewed book of the summer by The New York Times, Time, NPR, and more, Etna is a “devastating and gorgeous” (The New York Times Book Review), “hypnotic” (Time) literary novel that follows an ex-military dog who leaves the soldiers he once served and sets out on an odyssey across a war-torn country in search of home, hope, and a life beyond conflict—this is a novel about the power of an idea, about never giving up, and ultimately an “epic journey of hope” (Booklist, starred review) that finds light in the most dire of times.
"No dog lover should miss this." —People
"Don't let the book's length mislead you…Etna's odyssey deserves the epithet 'epic.'" —NPR, Best of August
Set in a fictional country in the present day, this is a story told through the eyes of an ex-military dog, Etna. After surviving years of a devastating war, Etna decides one night to leave the men he has fought alongside for years and return home—to the place where he was taken from when he was young, in the thin but persistent hope that if a home exists for him, it might be there.
Thus begins an exhilarating odyssey told through the eyes of a dog as he traverses across ruined landscapes and fights to survive in a world that, even in peacetime, proves to be just as precarious. Along the way, he encounters other animals and humans who are attempting to figure out how to start again. What makes a life when there is no home to go back to? How do we begin to trust each other again after such profound loss?
This is a novel about the power of an idea, about never giving up, and ultimately a novel about finding hope in the most dire of times.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Hope is the quiet but persistent theme that drives this thoughtful novel about a bomb-sniffing dog traversing a landscape devastated by conflict. Etna was a military dog, but the war is over now. Moved by forces he barely understands, he sets out to find his home village, encountering danger and destruction along the way. Paul Yoon punctuates Etna’s journey with memorable scenes, from rebels and unexploded bombs to a blind dog subsisting off the carnage left by a train wreck. The lyrical writing brings out the poignant beauty of Etna’s perspective: his thoughts and feelings are decidedly uncomplicated, even when they’re quite profound. And while Yoon notably avoids all sappiness and pandering, don’t be surprised if his simple description of a butterfly moves you to your core. Short but deeply reflective, Etna is a tremendously rewarding experience.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A combat-trained dog sets out for home after a war in this magnificent novel from Yoon (The Hive and the Honey). The story takes place in an unnamed mountainous country in an alternate present. It begins when the narrator, a shepherd mix raised happily on a coastal farm, is conscripted by a woman named Soojin, who can converse with dogs by reading their thoughts, and trained to sniff out land mines and disarm enemy soldiers for an American unit aiding their country's war effort. The war ends a quarter of the way through the novel, with the dog's country victorious but destroyed. Now almost five years old and fierce at 67 pounds, the dog wonders if, like the traumatized soldiers he fought alongside, he's been forever changed by the horrors of combat. Hoping to recover his sense of self, he travels the country, losing track of the distance and time and avoiding bloodthirsty survivors who evoke those in Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Eventually, he's aided by a good-hearted man named Hong, who, with his partner, an unnamed doctor, make dangerous supply runs to those attempting to rebuild. Not only does Yoon pull off a fresh take on well-worn Homeric themes and convincingly capture a dog's perspective, but he offers subtle and resonant insights on the nature of faith, which might not always provide salvation but can be enough to keep people (and dogs) going. The author has outdone himself.
