A Book So Good It Gave Me Chills

I just finished (as in, closed the cover 30 seconds ago) a truly great book. "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski. It made me laugh out loud, it made me sob and it gave me chills on more than one occasion. Seriously, read this book. Especially if you are a pet owner. This is an amazing novel about a boy who is born mute, living on a farm in rural Wisconsin in the 1950's. His family has a kennel where they raise their own fictional breed of dog. Edgar trains the dogs using sign language and teaches them to do amazing things but the crux of this story is really relationships--between Edgar and his parents and shadey uncle Claude, between Edgar and the dogs, relationships among the dogs, relationships with nature and the list goes on. The last two days I've gotten so caught up in the story I nearly missed my bus stop! Just read it. It's 560 pages of fabulous story-telling and I think it could become a classic (it was an Oprah's Book Club book, afterall :)).