9780062316998
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The Story of Edgar Sawtelle audiobook

  • By: David Wroblewski
  • Narrator: Richard Poe
  • Length: 21 hours 39 minutes
  • Publisher: HarperAudio
  • Publish date: August 13, 2013
  • Language: English
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(84642 ratings)
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The Story of Edgar Sawtelle Audiobook Summary

The extraordinary debut novel that became a modern classic

Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose remarkable gift for companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar’s lifelong friend and ally. Edgar seems poised to carry on his family’s traditions, but when catastrophe strikes, he finds his once-peaceful home engulfed in turmoil.

Forced to flee into the vast wilderness lying beyond the Sawtelle farm, Edgar comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who accompany him, until the day he is forced to choose between leaving forever or returning home to confront the mysteries he has left unsolved.

Filled with breathtaking scenes–the elemental north woods, the sweep of seasons, an iconic American barn, a fateful vision rendered in the falling rain–The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is a meditation on the limits of language and what lies beyond, a brilliantly inventive retelling of an ancient story, and an epic tale of devotion, betrayal, and courage in the American heartland.

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The Story of Edgar Sawtelle Audiobook Narrator

Richard Poe is the narrator of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle audiobook that was written by David Wroblewski

David Wroblewski grew up in rural Wisconsin, not far from the Chequamegon National Forest where The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is set. He earned his master’s degree from the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers and now lives in Colorado with his partner, the writer Kimberly McClintock, and their dog, Lola. This is his first novel.

About the Author(s) of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

David Wroblewski is the author of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

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The Story of Edgar Sawtelle Full Details

Narrator Richard Poe
Length 21 hours 39 minutes
Author David Wroblewski
Publisher HarperAudio
Release date August 13, 2013
ISBN 9780062316998

Additional info

The publisher of the The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is HarperAudio. The imprint is HarperAudio. It is supplied by HarperAudio. The ISBN-13 is 9780062316998.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Will

April 13, 2022

This is an extraordinary novel, Hamlet in the North Woods of Wisconsin.Wroblewski was very fond of the stories of Shakespeare as a kid, if not necessarily the actual text, and it is clear that he carried with him the knowledge of tragedy. Edgar opens with a mysterious transaction in the Orient in which a man seeks out a purveyor of a particularly effective poison. That will feature large later in the story.Edgar (Hamlet) is a boy born without the power of speech to a family (father Gar and mother Trudy) engaged in the business of raising very special dogs, so-called Sawtelle dogs. The author made up the breed. Edgar is accompanied by his faithful companion, Almondine, born only a short while prior to the boy. She is a wonderful character and I wish there was more of her in this book. She is Ophelia. Edgar is a hard-worker who manages to become quite adept at his dog training. It is his life. There is a mystical seer in the village, Ida Paine, who can be counted on to say some sooths. She is so spooky she is almost comedic, but her purpose is other. Finally, the household is joined by Claude (Claudius), Gar’s brother. He very much reminded me of Iago, and even a bit of Richard the Third as well as of his Hamlet inspiration. Claude and Gar never got on well, and we can expect more of the same even though they are teamed, for a time at least, in working the dog business. The authorThis is one of the most moving books I have ever read. Edgar is an immediately sympathetic character, beset by malevolent forces and unable to make himself heard. While one can see early on that the Shakespearean DNA will lead to a dark place, the journey there is magical. Do not be put off by the impending troubles. There are triumphs as well as defeats in store. Wroblewski was also very fond of Kipling’s Jungle Book as a kid and Edgar takes on the role of Mowgli as well as that of Hamlet. There is immense charm to accompany the danger when Edgar/Mowgli is afoot in the wood/jungle with his personal pack. It is shocking that this is Wroblewski’s first novel. It sings with the language of a master. Read it aloud and hear for yourself. You will come to love Edgar, ache for Almondine, weep for some, smile at the kindness of a few, rage at others. This is not just another book, but an emotional engagement that brings with it the satisfaction of literary content and beauty of language. If you have not had the opportunity to travel with Edgar, seek him out and howl with joy and sorrow. One of my all time favorites, this is a great, great book!=============================EXTRA STUFFLinks to the author’s personal website. His Twitter account does not appear to have been touched in a couple of years and I found no FB page by him. In his site, you might enjoy the tangents page, for a diversity of interesting information and links. PS - Wroblewski will be returning to the North Woods in his next book, telling the story of Edgar's ancestors. Edgar took him ten years to write. I don't think the prequel will take quite so long, as he will, hopefully, have made enough money from Edgar to allow him to spend full time writing. I can't wait. (Well... as of 2022 that has not happened, so one must wonder if it will)PPS - I happened across a very nice interview  with Wroblewski on Bookbrowse.com And. several years later, I stumbled upon this interview with OprahOne final interview, on Vulture.com

Lisa

September 22, 2008

Stayed up half the night finishing it and… I really can’t be objective about this book. I said earlier how I was enjoying it purely as a reader and not a critic, but it goes deeper than that. It’s like Wroblewski had some kind of infrared Jungian checklist and somehow managed to find out all my childhood fantasies: benevolent and wise dog companion/nursemaid? Check. Super-intelligent semi-wild pack of devoted dogs that sleep with you at night? Check. I guess the only thing worse than being raised by wolves is wishing you were – as a kid I always had a fantasy of a wolf pack appearing on my street to take me away. I wanted a dog who would look out for me like Lassie. So this was like – pardon the crudeness of the simile – finding the porn that gets you off just right.Even though there were problems – a series of transitions in the last quarter of the book that didn’t work well, and the last part in the barn wasn’t the climax or catharsis that I think the book wanted, and yeah, it was fat as a tick on a dog’s ear. But that didn’t matter much to me, honestly – I was so emotionally involved with the characters it was like being in love, in the way logic just flies out the window for a while. And it’s been such a long time since a book did that to me. I gave in, I did, I swooned.Plus there’s a lot that was just right. His language is nicely suited to the tale, elegant and tuned into the natural world. Obviously I’m a dog person so I’m slanted that way in the first place, but I thought he wrote the dogs well. It’s always a treat to read someone who’s so carefully observed something that you have too. And much of the book flowed beautifully. But mostly it was the characters that moved me, people and dogs alike. Not necessarily their inner lives or motivations, which fluctuated all over the board in terms of plausibility – just the fact of them. They’ll stay with me a while. Lord, I cried so hard over Almondine I had to go sit outside for a few minutes with my arm around my own flesh-and-blood dog.And the very last scene just called up my inner 8-year-old and made her happy. I couldn’t evaluate that dispassionately if I tried.In the end I don’t really know what to say about this book that anyone else might relate to. All I know is it transported me, and it was a good ride.

Timothy

July 09, 2008

I waged a personal debate for this five-star rating, arguing what exactly makes a book great. With every question, I returned to the story itself has the ability to lift a book above more average efforts.'The Story of Edgar Sawtelle' is just that, a great story. A modern retelling of 'Hamlet'? Certainly, the author availed himself of the plot to frame his tale of a mute boy and a remarkable group of dogs, but there is much more to be enjoyed among these pages.There are the languid narrative passages, vast and breathtaking paragraphs describing the north Wisconsin woods, the Sawtelle farm, the intensity of training dogs and the detailed geneology required to classify a breed. Make no mistake, if you like a fast read, this book isn't for you, the author's finely drawn sentences are meant to slow the reader, to step out of your hectic reality and allow yourself to dream.As an aspiring writer myself, I understood how the author labored over every sentence, every word choice, he wanted everything to be perfect. That he was in labor for ten years with his story makes one wonder what he must of felt when he finished.Some might argue the necessity for such extended prose. Are all those expanded descriptions really helping the story? Who the fuck am I to even dare that question? It all comes down to the story and when I am nearly breathless as a story comes to its inevitable end, such criticisms seem pointless. I shuddered at the two typos (pages 164 & 430), and for a time, those oversights in editing threatened a great story. Edgar Sawtelle is an unforgettable character, like Huck Finn, or Ignatius O'Reilly, or Holly Golightly. He'll be an old friend for the rest of my life.

E.J.

August 05, 2008

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle received a lot of advanced hype. The writer was mentored by Richard Russo and Stephen King wrote the mother of all blurbs for the book. While I didn't love it as much as he did, I did like the book very much. I wouldn't call it a classic piece of American literature, but it's probably one of the best books of the year. The story is a retelling of Hamlet, but focuses on an american boy who is mute. He works at his family's farm where they train the finest dogs in the country. The strength of the writing really comes via the prose. It is unpretenious, simple and direct, but that's what makes it so good. It's honest writing and I never got a sense that the writer was trying to create literature, rather he simply wanted to tell a tale. That's the best kind of writing in my humble opinion. The book is a little long and could probably have been better had it lost around 100 pages. There's a section in the late first half that feels overly repetitive despite the beauty of the langugage. The other "problem" I had with the book was that I didn't really feel the author needed the Hamlet template. The story is good enough on its own. That being said, I spent a lot longer reading this novel than I do most and I enjoyed the week+ spent there. Edgar, Almondine and the other dogs all grew on me and I think over time, this book won't diminish as quickly as others. It's not a perfect book by any means, but it's a perfectly good story told with heart. I recommend it for those who enjoy good, literate Americana stories.

Karey

February 08, 2009

I'm re-reading Edgar Sawtelle for a book discussion next month on Constant Reader.The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is a masterfully crafted tale, written in exquisite language that sets Wroblewski apart as a story teller and writer in his own right. At first I wanted to compare him to Steinbeck, but he belongs in a league of his own. If no one has ever had a dog, after finishing The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, I would venture to say you'll feel as though you've had one all your life.

Jennifer

July 31, 2008

This epic story of a lonely boy, his loyal dog, and his family's betrayal at the hands of his bitter uncle will not only haunt me for the rest of the summer, but will cause all the other books I pick up this fall to pale in comparison, I suspect. Set in a rural 1970's Wisconsin and gracefully hung on the bones of Hamlet, the story explores the inner life of mute boy Edgar Sawtelle and his amazing invented breed of near- mind-reading dog, simply called the Sawtelle dogs. Edgar's life raising and training dogs on his family's farm is idyllic until his father dies suddenly and Edgar suspects his uncle was involved. Determined to bring the man to justice, Edgar makes several crucial decisions that will change the course of his life and the fate of the Sawtelle dogs. The ending is heart-breaking, yet inevitable and in keeping with the story. Though it occasionally meandered, I always wanted to keep reading to see what would happen next, and found the prose lyrical yet accessible. Destined to be a classic.

Cheryl

October 04, 2008

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is a spellbinding tale of love and loss, and the ultimate search of finding oneself.The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski is the most recent pick for Oprah's Book Club and it is a thoughtful literary masterpiece worthy of 5 stars. This is not your fast-paced thriller beach read; this is a novel you want to read carefully and allow to steep and absorb.The characters are complexly drawn, three-dimensional and the story itself is highly emotional and inspiring. Edgar, the main protagonist is mute, yet his communication with his dog shows the astounding depths of the relationship between man and animal, and that language is much more than spoken words we hear.The story had a strong emotional impact on me. Having recently lost my faithful dog of 13 years and later adding a new puppy to our household, it sure made me look at dogs differently. Although the story is fiction and the breed is fictional...well, who knows? Anything is possible, right?I will admit the story is slow in parts, mainly because I think the author is striving to really paint a picture of the world he's created and the people who live in it. To me, the book's overall plot is a success and the reward for sticking through it all is satisfying. It's the kind of novel I personally prefer. One that makes me think while I'm reading it, and one that I think of long after I've put it down.I don't expect it will be long before we see this novel made into a movie.This novel was an honor to read.~Cheryl Kaye Tardif, bestselling author of Whale Songhttp://www.cherylktardif.com

Vonia

December 13, 2020

4.5? Will get back to you on that review. Need to absorb story. Simmer in the appreciation. Reminisce on the reading I somewhat reluctantly finished.

Ron

December 17, 2013

Sit. Stay. Read. The dog days of summer are nigh, and here is a big-hearted novel you can fall into, get lost in and finally emerge from reluctantly, a little surprised that the real world went on spinning while you were absorbed.You haven't heard of the author. David Wroblewski is a 48-year-old software developer in Colorado, and this is his first novel. It's being released with the kind of hoopla once reserved for the publishing world's most established authors. No wonder: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is an enormous but effortless read, trimmed down to the elements of a captivating story about a mute boy and his dogs. That sets off alarm bells, I know: Handicapped kids and pets can make a toxic mix of sentimentality., But Wroblewski writes with such grace and energy that Edgar Sawtelle never succumbs to that danger. Inspired improbably by the plot of Shakespeare's "Hamlet," this Midwestern tale manages to be both tender and suspenseful.The story takes place in a small Wisconsin town where Gar and Trudy Sawtelle happily raise and train their own unusual breed of dogs. The time is the early 1970s, but Wroblewski casts the setting in the sepia tones of an earlier period, as though cut off from the modern age. Their only child is an endearing boy named Edgar, who arrived 14 years ago after a string of miscarriages that almost crushed his mother's spirit. Edgar cannot speak or make any sounds, but he's otherwise healthy. To his grateful parents, "it didn't matter what in him was special and what ordinary. He was alive. . . . Compared to that, silence was nothing."He quickly develops a rich facility with words and communicates in a mixture of standard American Sign Language and his family's own private gestures, "a language in which everything important could be said." And, to a remarkable extent, that discourse includes their animals. Some of the most engaging moments in the novel involve Edgar and his parents training the dogs with a technique that seems somehow tedious and magical: "They spent long hours doing crazywalking, stays, releases, shared-gaze drills . . . watching, listening, diverting a dog's exuberance, not suppressing it."Wroblewski's parents once raised dogs in this area of Wisconsin, and every page here expresses his love and knowledge of these animals. Yet the precise nature of the Sawtelles' breed remains tantalizingly vague. They "show rare, unnameable talents," and we catch glimpses of the dogs in various colors and sizes, but what matters is their demeanor, their character, "the way they look at you." Though never actually personified, they express the subtler qualities we associate with being human: judgment, even whimsy and, above all, a kind of intelligent presence and individuality that's unnerving to strangers. "Some, for example, seemed capable of inspiration," Wroblewski writes. "A dog with a keen sense of humor would find ways to make jokes with you, and could be a joy to work with. Others were serious and contemplative."Into this idyllic setting slithers Edgar's smooth-talking uncle, Claude. You don't need to catch the Hamlet references, and if you do, that won't sap the novel's suspense. Wroblewski plays with Shakespeare's troubled prince the same way Jane Smiley used "King Lear" for A Thousand Acres, borrowing the frame but not the details. Claude has been in the Navy, in Korea, and though he can be charming, he's "ferociously solitary." Edgar's father gives Claude a job and a place to stay while he gets back on his feet, but the situation becomes uncomfortable almost immediately: "Arguments arose, puzzling and disconcerting," Wroblewski writes. "Though the details differed each time, Edgar got the idea that Claude and his father had slipped without their knowing it into some irresistible rhythm of taunt and reply whose references were too subtle or too private to decipher."Eventually, those disagreements spark a murder that shatters everyone's life on the farm. Edgar's world comes "permanently unsprung," and he's forced to flee into the forests of Wisconsin with three young dogs no more ready to live on their own than he is. It's a long, dark journey for this little gang, a constant struggle against starvation and discovery set in a wilderness that Wroblewski describes in all its harrowing adventure and serendipity. But the real triumph is Edgar, this boy of rare sensitivity, virtue and resilience, carving out of air with his hands the rich language of his heart.Most of the story comes to us through a masterful, transparent voice: The author, the narrator, the pages -- everything fades away as we're drawn into this engrossing tale. But there are also a few inventive variations. Once in a while, we see events from a dog's point of view, in a strangely humane but inhuman perspective. Another chapter is made up of Edgar's first memories as a baby and toddler, and there's a chilling section told from the murderer's perspective.As the thriller elements of the story rise and propel it along, Wroblewski laces in signs of mysticism, sometimes a little too portentous, but usually just right: The spooky old woman who runs a convenience store in town offers impromptu fortune-telling. In one of the novel's eeriest moments, Edgar is visited by "a water-shimmer" -- a figure who appears only by displacing rain during a storm. And then there are those uncanny descriptions of the boy and his dogs: "the poised stillness of their bodies, and especially their gaze." These otherworldly touches move in and out of the novel, vanishing almost before you can focus on them.The final section gathers like a furious storm of hope and retribution that brings young Edgar to a destiny he doesn't deserve but never resists. It's a devastating finale, shocking though foretold, that transforms the story of this little family into something grand and unforgettable.http://articles.washingtonpost.com/20...

Melissa

July 28, 2016

Being an animal lover, I was drawn to this book immediately. Many reviews say the book followed Shakespeare's Hamlet, which is a plus in my world. Anything Shakespeare is brilliant! Even if that weren't the case, the story is a page-turner because the reader truly cares about the characters. I didn't want to put this book down.

Thomas

September 01, 2008

This book deserved to be the "book of the summer," but I agree with other reviewers that the ending was for the dogs.It's only been a few hours since I finished and I have some thoughts on why the ending has troubled so many readers. A good ending should feel inevitable, even if it's tragic like in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. After so many pages of rich harrowing prose, we come to this. Almost everything in the ending feels contrived, from Edgar running back into a burning barn to rescue worthless files, to the python-grip of the quicklime-blinded sheriff holding down his mother. It's as if the author, after dovetailing his story so beautifully to Shakespeare's Hamlet, is unable to escape his own machinations. He has to end it this way so it will be literature with a capital "L."Edgar was no Hamlet and I mean that in a good way. He was not the brooding, scheming prince who spurns Ophelia, murders, and blithely sends Rosencratz and Guildenstern to their deaths. Instead of Hamlet's endless poetic prattling we have a deeply emotive, mute child. He was not Hamlet and the story did not have to end like Hamlet.Is this literature with a capital "L" though? In spite of my take on the ending I'm inclined to think "yes." It's stil a great story, (Oh, how I hate the term debut author. Something is either good or it isn't. Harper Lee only one wrote one novel.) Only time will tell with this one, but I think people will be reading it in years to come.

Ruby

June 09, 2020

I loved this book. I couldn't stop reading. This is a story about people and dogs; about love and death; about growing up. I felt the book, there's no other way to say it.

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