"After dark the rain began to fall again, but he had already made up his mind to go and anyway it had been raining for weeks."
SUMMARY:
This story centers around a boy who is born a mute and uses a combination of Sign Language and his own signs to communicate with his family. The family business is dog breeding and training in which mother, father, and son are all involved. Throughout the book the boy, Edgar, shows a fierce love for his dogs. It is when the father's brother, Claude, comes to stay with the family that turmoil ensues.
Unexpectedly, the father tragically dies. Ultimately, this brings Claude and the wife together which leaves Edgar feeling alone and betrayed. When Edgar tries to prove that someone murdered his father the plan backfires and he ends up fleeing his home with his dogs into the woods. Eventually, he returns home to face all that he had run from.
MY THOUGHTS:
This book is without a doubt beautifully written. It is as though the author chose every word written with great care and at the same time the words, sentences, pages flowed with such ease. The author really took his time telling this story (the book was over 600 pages) and with each page the reader became just a bit more invested in the characters and storyline.
However, in my opinion, I think the book was too long and drawn out. I can appreciate the fact that the author had a story to tell but it was too much for me. I was also not satisfied with the ending. If I had the time and felt the need this would be a good book to re-read as you would be able to pick up on all the things that were more certainly missed the first time around.
RATING:
I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.
