Fifteen Dogs, by Andre Alexis

Have you ever wondered what your dog is thinking about? Or what you would talk about if your dog could speak and reason? Andre Alexis certainly has, and it is profoundly bizarre. It starts, of course, with a bet. Hermes and Apollo are getting drunk in a Toronto dive bar and debate whether intelligence in people is worth it: "Human intelligence is not a gift. It's an occasionally useful plague," exclaims Apollo. How to discover which god is right? Fifteen dogs are staying overnight at a nearby vet's office, and in an instant are gifted human intelligence. Should any one of them die truly happy at the end of his life, Hermes wins the bet.

The rest of this slim novel follows the remaining time left to each of these dogs, three of whom don't last the night (if you're particularly sentimental about your pets, I suggest you not pick up this book). Each dog is its own person, with beliefs and desires, but with the added complication of retaining all their old memories and their biological instincts. (If you're not comfortable reading about dogs licking their genitals, I suggest you not pick up this book.) This is a deeply philosophical work about self-awareness and being, while simultaneously being a thorough look inside a dog's mind. It's uncanny, the way Alexis delves into the canine psyche in such believable fashion.

So who wins the bet? Is this in the end a hopeful novel, or a cynical treatise on sentience? If you like feeling a little uncomfortable, I suggest you pick up this book and find out.