Etna
Etna
by Paul Yoon
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About the Book
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.
About the Author
Paul Yoon is the author of six works of fiction: Etna; Once the Shore, a New York Times Notable Book; Snow Hunters, winner of the Young Lions Fiction Award; The Mountain, an NPR Best Book of the Year; Run Me to Earth, a Time Must-Read Books of 2020 and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction; and The Hive and the Honey, winner of the 20th Annual Story Prize and longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates prize.
Editorial Reviews
"Devastating and gorgeous." —The New York Times Book Review
"Keenly wrought… Etna stands out among Yoon’s work… For all its compactness, Etna has the shape of an epic…tied deeply into both ancient literary tradition and tragically perennial concerns…In Yoon’s hands, a character’s suffering never overwhelms their capacity for tenderness. The author always insists on the enduring humanity of his displaced subject—even when they aren’t human.” —Rachel Vorona Cote, The Atlantic
“A moving experience.” —Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
“In this slim, extraordinary fable about a dog in wartime… Yoon captures Etna’s experiences and heroism in clear, transcendent language. No dog lover should miss this.” —People Magazine
"Don't let the book's length mislead you, though: Etna's odyssey also deserves the epithet "epic," and the characters who populate it have lived on in my mind long past the book's final line.” —NPR, Best of August
“Yoon’s spare, precise, beautiful language lifts a conceit that could have been hokey or gimmicky into something revelatory: a glimpse of human folly and cruelty through eyes of the utmost innocence. …A gorgeous reminder of our ability to look searingly and soulfully at who we are and what we’ve become.” —Frank Bruni, The New York Times
“In barely 200 pages, Yoon hands the reader a piercing classic about survival and about the search for home and family, a longing for a pack of one’s own, that persists in the face of the ultimate brutality. Perhaps no one, human or dog, ever outruns war.” —Financial Times
“Poignant...a story on the importance of storytelling itself, as a way to resist cruelty and recognize hope." —Chicago Tribune
"Simply put, I've never read a book like this. Yoon's novel is concise and unique and just sticks with you after reading." —Scary Mommy