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[extract] And in northern Wisconsin, in the middle of the middle of nowhere, John Sawtelle and his new pup walked down a dirt road toward a farm that would turn out to be unoccupied and, according to the cross-plank sign, for sale. All that had happened was that his car had boiled over. Now he and the pup - who would turn out to be plenty smart enough to be a Gus instead of a Barney or a Chester - were off to fetch a bucket of water so they could be on their way. He would not recognize the significance of the moment for a long time. It did not feel like the beginning of anything.

The same would be true of each of the great quests in John Sawtelle's life.

'A story-telling bonfire as enthralling in its pages as it is illuminating of our fragile and complicated humanity. Familiaris is as expansive and enlightening a saga that has ever been written' Tom Hanks

'Suppose you could do one impossible thing," John Sawtelle says in David Wroblewski's stunning new novel Familiaris. What would you do? Clearly, what the author would do and has done is write this impossibly wise, impossibly ambitious, impossibly beautiful book' Richard Russo

'Tender, ambitious, fierce, deeply human, and of course wonderfully canine, David Wroblewski's second novel is an American tour de force. A story spun out over generations, to be read for generations, this is a big brave book that is old-fashioned in the very best sense of the word' Colum McCann

'A great American novel of people and passions and ideas - and, of course, dogs... Already having drawn comparisons to Russo, Irving, Strout, McCarthy, and Gilbert, with García Márquez added here, Wroblewski earns them all, amply rewarding readers who have been waiting impatiently for 15 years. For all the eons it may take to read it, this colossus of a book will own you, and you will weep to be freed' Kirkus starred review