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    Familiaris (Oprah's Book Club)
    Familiaris (Oprah's Book Club)
    Familiaris (Oprah's Book Club)
    Audiobook37 hours

    Familiaris (Oprah's Book Club)

    Written by David Wroblewski

    Narrated by Richard Poe

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Oprah’s Book Club Pick for Summer 2024

    “An extraordinary journey that brilliantly interweaves history, philosophy, adventure, and mysticism to explore the meaning of love, friendship, and living your life’s true purpose.”—Oprah Winfrey

    The follow-up to the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling modern classic The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, Familiaris is the stirring origin story of the Sawtelle family and the remarkable dogs that carry the Sawtelle name.

    It is spring 1919, and John Sawtelle’s imagination has gotten him into trouble … again. Now John and his newlywed wife, Mary, along with their two best friends and their three dogs, are setting off for Wisconsin’s northwoods, where they hope to make a fresh start—and, with a little luck, discover what it takes to live a life of meaning, purpose, and adventure. But the place they are headed for is far stranger and more perilous than they realize, and it will take all their ingenuity, along with a few new friends—human, animal, and otherworldly—to realize their dreams.

    By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, mysterious and enchanting, Familiaris takes readers on an unforgettable journey from the halls of a small-town automobile factory, through an epic midwestern firestorm and an ambitious WWII dog-training program, and far back into mankind’s ancient past, examining the dynamics of love and friendship, the vexing nature of families, the universal desire to create something lasting and beautiful, and of course, the species-long partnership between Homo sapiens and Canis familiaris.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBlackstone Publishing
    Release dateJun 11, 2024
    ISBN9798212192286
    Familiaris (Oprah's Book Club)
    Author

    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.

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    Reviews for Familiaris (Oprah's Book Club)

    4.5/5

    41 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      My favorite book ever. Spoke to me deeply and in so many ways I can’t even yet put words to.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful story, hate to have it end. Charming characters. Great to listen to.
    • 5/5
      At times the story seems off track and rambling, but it so effortlessly returns to its tale and the reader captures why the author took the reading beyond the storyline. As characters died off I felt a loss for someone I cared for even thought we never met. Excellent
    • 1/5
      I'm probably the only person who could not get into this book. I was already exasperated at the legnthy rambling of several characters, like reading Everett from "o brother where art thou". I was game to keep going, as long as no dogs got hurt, until the injection of Walter's story. Enough. Not interested. 2 days of reading waster.
    • 5/5
      If I could sum this book up in one sentence I would say it is the story of all humanity, the strong connection of the human animal bond and nature. It is a very long book but well written and an enjoyable story. It is the prequel to The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and if you enjoyed that you will likely enjoy this one as well. The story touches on many aspects of the human condition, friendship, trust, love, hope, fear, betrayal, philosophy - it's all there in spades. It follows young John Sawtelle and his newlywed wife Mary and two friend who strike out to build their own personal utopia - Relaxalot, on a isolated farm in Wisconsin and how they deal with life, how they interact with each other and how the famous Sawtelle Dogs came into being. This book has just about everything one needs to create its own unique world, even a little paranormal magic thrown in for good measure. I very much enjoyed the narration of the audio book version I listened to, the narrator was amazing. I highly recommend this book for fans of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and for those who enjoy a deep and engrossing family saga. 5 stars.

      Many thanks to Net Galley and Blackstone Publishing - Audiobooks for a chance to listen/read an ARC copy of this fine novel.
    • 5/5
      This book.

      Damn.

      It has a lot to live up to. Of all the books in the world that I've read up to now, its predecessor, THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE is a book that, for something like 16 years, I have labeled as my favourite novel of all time. The weird thing? I can't put my finger on exactly why. Maybe it's the characters. Maybe it's the story. Maybe it's the dogs. Maybe it's the gorgeous writing.

      But it's my favourite book. So, FAMILIARIS has a lot of work to do.

      And honestly, while there's no real plot beyond it being, in the first half, THE STORY OF JOHN SAWTELLE, it's truly enjoyable. It meanders here. It meanders there. It brings you to a certain point, then stops, jumps locations and characters, and starts all over again. The villains that show up are dispatched quickly and mostly off-stage. There's no slow build of tension as any reasonable book has, but there's tension throughout. Characters come and go. Some come back, some don't.

      Then, in the second half, it kind of does all that again, but with Gar and Claude, John's sons. So, for a while, it becomes THE STORY OF GAR AND CLAUDE SAWTELLE. I will say I had a harder time with this section, primarily because of the business one of the sons was engaged in. I found it hard to believe he'd do this, raised in the Sawtelle home.

      So, there's a good two to three hundred pages that I would rate more a 3.5 stars, rather than five.

      And then, toward the end, it becomes THE DIARY OF JOHN SAWTELLE, which was both frustrating and illuminating.

      But through it all, there was fear, and laughter, and anger, and frustration, and hope, and inspiration, and despair, and hate, and heartbreak.

      Ultimately, this is a book about lives. About setting out to do something magical and, sometimes pulling it off, sometimes not.

      This shouldn't work as a novel. But it does.

      It does not supplant my ranking of EDGAR SAWTELLE as the best book I've ever read, but I'd say its a worthy successor to it, and an interesting prequel to that novel.

      I can only hope we don't have to wait until 2040 for the next Wroblewski work.