Dog Boy - Eva Hornung

[Jane B]

I'd picked up Dog Boy a number of times and having finally read it I'm glad I did. The theme of Dog Boy is the age old one of a boy being raised by dogs..yet this rendering by Eva Hornung was to me in the end an emotional look at the modern world, the harshness of life and the tenderness and caring of the pack.

Romochka is four when he discovers that he is alone in his abandoned apartment building on the outskirts of Moscow. His mother and uncle have disappeared, where they have gone is anyone's guess and we never find out. He ventures out into the freezing cold to find food and it is then that he sees Mamochka who leads him to her lair and is adopted into the clan. Romochka becomes one of Mamochka's puppies suckling from her and slowly learns to interact with the clan in their own 'language.'

Hornung makes this world believable in everyway; from Romochka's envy of the dogs teeth and claws as he grows and tries to hunt and his hankering for contact with some of the humans that he comes across after he ventures from the lair with the pack. To say more would spoil the story.

Dog Boy and especially the ending has lingered with me over the weeks since I finished it and I must say that Hornung has written a very thought provoking book that I would highly recommend.