Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #68531 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Synopsis
In early 1998 I went to Perth in Western Australia in order to attend the literature festival, and part of the arrangement was that I should go to Karratha to do their first ever literary dinner. Karratha is a mining town a long way further north. The landscape is extraordinary, being composed of vast heaps of dark red earth and rock poking out of the never-ending bush. I imagine that Mars must have a similar feel to it. I went exploring and discovered the bronze statue to Red Dog outside the town of Dampier. I felt straight away that I had to find out more about this splendid dog. A few months later I returned to Western Australia and spent two glorious weeks driving around collecting Red Dog stories and visiting the places that he knew, writing up the text as I went along. I hope my cat never finds out that I have written a story to celebrate the life of a dog.

Customer Reviews

Compassionate, funny, quirky and sweet - not just for dog lovers
When I saw Louis de Bernieres at a reading recently, he discussed Red Dog and mentioned that it was meant to be a children's book, but his publishers failed to advertise as such. In my opinion, I'm glad this error was made, as many adult readers may have been less likely to try this book if they had thought it was meant for children.

Red Dog is a beautiful novella, based on the true story of a dog that travelled around Australia in the 70s, befriending everyone he met. It describes how the love for such a character can bring people together, and make them work together in times of loss and despair. The overall message is truly uplifting.

I feel I should also note that whether or not you like dogs should have no bearing on whether you choose to read this book. It is compassionate, funny, quirky and sweet, and a great way to pass a couple of hours.

Like the author, I hope that my cat doesn't find out about this book!
I got this book thinking that it was going to be the story of someone's family pet but instead got the story of a dog who befriended everyone, even his feline counterpart, Red Cat. (Yes, there was a Red Cat as well!) I enjoyed all of this book but bits that stand out were the barbecue where Red Dog (or Tally Ho as he then was) indirectly caused a fight after the barbecue goers blamed each other for missing sausages (guess who ate them??), the time he turned up at a dog show, as well as the part where a vet learned that the red-coated dogs he had treated were one and the same dog. There were times that people were cruel to Red Dog as well as kind, reminding us that dogs have feelings as much as humans.

Brilliant!
This is a lovely heart-warming book which I thoroughly enjoyed reading and would definitely recommend to others, especially dog lovers.