Praise for Eva Hornung and Dog Boy

SHORTLISTED, VANCE PALMER PRIZE FOR FICTION,
VICTORIAN PREMIER’S LITERARY AWARDS 2009

‘Brilliant…Hornung’s writing is beautiful and assured: her descriptions of this dog boy life are vivid and visceral and sensual and utterly compelling. She also writes about the dogs with breathtaking beauty—the penultimate climactic scene will squeeze your heart. Dog Boy is an ambitious concept, magnificently realised— you’ll never look at a dog in the same way again.’ Sunday Telegraph ‘Astonishing…a world of terrifying tactility—of teeth, teat, fur and claw—yet Hornung shows how accustomed to it, and reassured by it, Romochka becomes…In this perilous, ambiguous condition he must make daily attempts to survive. In Dog Boy, Hornung has imagined that struggle with unflagging control and an absence of sentimentality…The novel is a strange, sombre, sobering triumph.’ Sydney Morning Herald

‘Dog Boy is a wonderful novel, a tour de force.’ JOHN BURNSIDE, Guardian UK

‘Written in plain, strong language, Dog Boy is rich in interest and ideas…Hornung is wonderful on the physical characteristics, both beautiful and repulsive, of animals and children…Dog Boy unravels some of the reasons why humans and dogs are co-dependant and at the same time reinvents the idea of the wild child as an urban survivor, suggesting a future so menacing we prefer to ignore it.’ Age

‘Hornung writes with extraordinary force and insight about the dynamics of the pack, capturing both its shocking ruthlessness, its tenderness and its joy. And she holds in constant tension the borders between our animal and our human selves…there is a terrible beauty at work in its pages. This is an amazing feat of imaginative power on Hornung’s part, a book that traverses every sensation from delight to utter heartbreak.’ Canberra Times

‘A grim and primal story of unnatural selection…This tough new novel represents an important shift in emphasis and a broadening of her vision.’ Australian

‘Acknowledges the tradition of stories about children raised by beasts, then immediately reinvents it. As a result, Dog Boy is refreshingly unfamiliar…Readers will taste the grit in their teeth as they read this novel and, like Romochka, they will be irrevocably transformed well before its conclusion.’ Adelaide Review

‘Grotesque, moving and utterly astonishing…Hornung has come up with something improbably different in Dog Boy…a story that never veers into the impossible. Hornung takes delicate footsteps between the disturbing and the moving. A bare plot outline can only highlight the grotesque and freakish in Dog Boy, but the book is also heavy with themes of joy, loyalty and love…Who but a dog knows if Hornung has successfully penetrated the canine mind, but it’s hard to imagine anyone doing it better.’ Herald Sun

‘Moving, frightening, and heartbreaking. The story also has a true universality. Hornung…is proving herself an important figure in Australian literature.’ Australian Bookseller & Publisher

‘Hornung has written an unforgettable, imaginative tour de force and a powerful, painful read, particularly for those of us who are fond of dogs and harbour more than a few reservations about humans.’ Adelaide Advertiser

‘Eva Hornung’s extraordinary novel, replete with visceral detail, is utterly believable…It is a compelling story with a sharp bite.’ Sunday Tasmanian

‘You will be amazed by Dog Boy.’ Otago Daily Times

‘A remarkable depiction of how little separates us from the animals, in the best and worst senses. The depth and breadth of its disturbing and piercing social and animal insight compares favourably…with such classics as A Clockwork Orange and The Call of the Wild.’ Listener NZ

‘An amazing feat of the imagination.’ Australian Women’s Weekly

‘While Romochka’s life with the dogs is fascinating, the story becomes truly gripping when he is introduced to human society and we finally see him though others’ eyes. A novel whose end comes all too soon, Dog Boy is certain to make us both appreciate our canine friends and celebrate what it is to be human.’ Who Weekly

‘A confronting work that digs into broader social issues around homelessness and the fate of the less fortunate in post-modern, post-industrial societies…Hornung’s highly descriptive prose is unrelenting…a confident, thought-provoking work.’ Independent Weekly

‘Completely believable…beautiful.’ The Times UK

‘The combination of meticulous research and a pared-down, non-sentimental writing style makes this novel hard to put down. Hornung…writes like a Russian master.’ Herald on Sunday NZ

‘In exploring what it might be like to be a dog from a human perspective, Dog Boy sheds much light on what it is like to be human. Utterly compelling and believable.’ YANN MARTEL

‘I read Dog Boy with ever-growing fascination and admiration. How intensely imagined it is, and how powerfully she conveys the toxic Russian backlands.’ JOAN LONDON

‘A tour de force of imaginative empathy. Eva Hornung is neither Russian nor canine but her deep engagement with languages, both human and animal, makes it possible for her to inhabit these utterly original characters on an almost molecular level. If The Story of Edgar Sawtelle convinced us that dogs have inner lives, Hornung reveals to us their very souls. This is a wonderful, intense and profoundly moving book from a writer of rare gifts.’ GERALDINE BROOKS