The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


While this book merits the numerous comparisons with Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," Heller's post-apocalyptic near future is even more plausible (at least for someone living in the West) with its beetle-distressed trees, seemingly endless drought and constant wildfire smoke hovering on the summer horizon. While the plot focuses on a post-pandemic flu way of life, it is the characters, expertly rendered and well-rounded, that drive the novel forward, especially the yin and yang of Hig and Bangley, an odd couple that has set up a home of sorts at an abandoned airport. Heller's sparse, fluid prose is channeled through the quirky voice of narrator Hig, and the story is his emotional and physical journey through the altered landscapes of both his dream world and the new reality of a sparsely populated, always dangerous West.



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