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Dog Man

Dog Man

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Dog Man

by Martha Sherrill

  • Used
  • good
  • Paperback
Condition
Good
ISBN 10
1594483906
ISBN 13
9781594483905
Seller
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Riverview, New Brunswick, Canada
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About This Item

Riverhead Books, 2009. Trade Paperback. Good.

Synopsis

How one man's consuming passion for dogs saved a legendary breed from extinction and led him to a difficult, more soulful way of life in the wilds of Japan's remote snow countryAs Dog Man opens, Martha Sherrill brings us to a world that Americans know very little about-the snow country of Japan during World War II. In a mountain village, we meet Morie Sawataishi, a fierce individualist who has chosen to break the law by keeping an Akita dog hidden in a shed on his property.During the war, the magnificent and intensely loyal Japanese hunting dogs are donated to help the war effort, eaten, or used to make fur vests for the military. By the time of the Japanese surrender in 1945, there are only sixteen Akitas left in the country. The survival of the breed becomes Morie's passion and life, almost a spiritual calling.Devoted to the dogs, Morie is forever changed. His life becomes radically unconventional-almost preposterous-in ultra-ambitious, conformist Japan. For the dogs, Morie passes up promotions, bigger houses, and prestigious engineering jobs in Tokyo. Instead, he raises a family with his young wife, Kitako-a sheltered urban sophisticate-in Japan's remote and forbidding snow country.Their village is isolated, but interesting characters are always dropping by-dog buddies, in-laws from Tokyo, and a barefoot hunter who lives in the wild. Due in part to Morie's perseverance and passion, the Akita breed strengthens and becomes wildly popular, sometimes selling for millions of yen. Yet Morie won't sell his spectacular dogs. He only likes to give them away.Morie and Kitako remain in the snow country today, living in the traditional Japanese cottage they designed together more than thirty years ago-with tatami mats, an overhanging roof, a deep bathtub, and no central heat. At ninety-four years old, Morie still raises and trains the Akita dogs that have come to symbolize his life.In beautiful prose that is a joy to read, Martha Sherrill opens up the world of the Dog Man and his wife, providing a profound look at what it is to be an individualist in a culture that reveres conformity-and what it means to live life in one's own way, while expertly revealing Japan and Japanese culture as we've never seen it before.

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Details

Bookseller
Cover To Cover Books, Inc. CA (CA)
Bookseller's Inventory #
0148836
Title
Dog Man
Author
Martha Sherrill
Format/Binding
Trade Paperback
Book Condition
Used - Good
Quantity Available
1
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10
1594483906
ISBN 13
9781594483905
Publisher
Riverhead Books
Place of Publication
New York, New York, U.s.a.
Date Published
2009
Bookseller catalogs
Nonfiction - Animal;

Terms of Sale

Cover To Cover Books, Inc.

Payment may be made via American Express, Master Card or Visa; purchases may be returned for any reason. Shipping is refunded if seller error

About the Seller

Cover To Cover Books, Inc.

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2006
Riverview, New Brunswick

About Cover To Cover Books, Inc.

Previously enjoyed books, all genres of fiction and non-fiction.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Trade Paperback
Used to indicate any paperback book that is larger than a mass-market paperback and is often more similar in size to a hardcover...

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