"Leave it to Peter Heller to imagine a postapocalyptic world that contains as much loveliness as it does devastation. His hero, Hig, flies a 1956 Cessna (his dog as copilot) around what was once Colorado, chasing all the same things we chase in these pre-annihilation days: love, friendship, the solace of the natural world, and the chance to perform some small kindness. The Dog Stars is a wholly compelling and deeply engaging debut." -Pam Houston, author of Contents May Have Shifted
A riveting, powerful novel about a pilot living in a world filled with loss-and what he is willing to risk to rediscover, against all odds, connection, love, and grace.
Hig survived the flu that killed everyone he knows. His wife is gone, his friends are dead, he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, his only neighbor a gun-toting misanthrope. In his 1956 Cessna, Hig flies the perimeter of the airfield or sneaks off to the mountains to fish and to pretend that things are the way they used to be. But when a random transmission somehow beams through his radio, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life-something like his old life-exists beyond the airport. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return-not enough fuel to get him home-following the trail of the static-broken voice on the radio. But what he encounters and what he must face-in the people he meets, and in himself-is both better and worse than anything he could have hoped for.
Narrated by a man who is part warrior and part dreamer, a hunter with a great shot and a heart that refuses to harden, The Dog Stars is both savagely funny and achingly sad, a breathtaking story about what it means to be human.
Industry Reviews
""The Dog Stars" creates a delicate balance between post-civilization wish fulfillment and the deep human need for connection. . . . Heller writes like a kind of latter-day Hemingway or McCarthy. . . . Our current uncertainties can't hold a candle to nuclear war or a devastating plague, but in the end, the remedy for our fears remains the same: love and connection." --Clay Evans, "Boulder Daily Camera"
"Heller sculpts a unique and compelling story [and] an intricate hero who inspires a risky break from complacency in a quest for happiness that can't be planned but must be forged. . . . [Heller's] best work yet, combining his keen eye for details and his energetic writing with a gift for introspective storytelling." --Jason Blevins, "The Denver Post"
"["The Dog Stars"] gripped me--it's the real deal. Heller's voice is extraordinary and his narrator's toughness seems to hide a beautiful and aching restlessness. One of those books that makes you happy for literature." --Junot Diaz, "Wall Street Journal"
"A novel about no less than isolation, humanity, empathy, and need." --"The Christian Science Monitor"
"Lyrical . . . This is a beautiful, haunting and hopeful book written with a poetic sparseness that makes your breath catch and your heart ache." --Carole O'Brien, "Aspen Daily News Online"
"Heller has created a heartbreakingly moving love story with "The Dog Stars," one of this year's greatest literary surprises. . . . A poetic and stellar story of what can happen to men and women when their world begins to die. It's an ode to what we've lost so far, and how we risk losing everything. Grade: A+" --John J. Kelly, "Cincinnati City Beat"
"Vivacious . . . Heller's writing is powerful and elegant even when in the vernacular, and polished to a high degree. The narrator's voice comes through in all his sadness. The story as far as it goes is relatively believable, swiftly paced and engrossing." --Michel Basilieres, "The Sta
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