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Dogs of the Deadlands

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Dogs of the Deadlands

By: Anthony McGowan
Narrated by: Francis Greenslade
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About this listen

Chernobyl 1986. Natasha’s world is coming to an end. Forced to evacuate her home in the middle of the night, she must leave her puppy behind and has no idea if she’ll ever return.

Some time later, growing up in the shadow of the ruined nuclear power plant, pups Misha and Bratan have to learn how to live wild—and fast.

Creatures with sharp teeth, claws and yellow eyes lurk in the overgrown woods. And they’re watching the brothers’ every move… But will the dogs survive without humans? And can humans live without them?

2023, The Young Quills Awards, Long-listed

2023. The Week Junior Book Award Children's Book of the Year, Short-listed

2024, The Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing Outstanding book written in English for children and young people, Long-listed

©2022 Anthony McGowan (P)2022 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd Animals Animals & Nature Fiction Literature & Fiction

Critic reviews

"McGowan's prose is beautiful in its brevity and devastating in its emotional impact." (The Bookseller)

"The Carnegie medal winner McGowan is superb at stories about children who do not have all the advantages." (The Sunday Times)

"This book! It broke my heart and then splinted it back together again. Full of hope and love and wildness... Imagine Watership Down meets The Animals of Farthing Wood but fiercer." (Hannah Gold, author of The Last Bear)
All stars
Most relevant
I partly listened to the audio book and partly read the book. Just because I could.

Dogs of the Deadlands is obviously partly based on real events. Anyone with even the vaguest knowledge of the Chernobyl disaster knows this book isn’t going to be an easy ride.
However, although inspired by reality, it also reads as some sort of twisted fairytale complete with heroes, villains and cottages in the woods.

The book opens as Reactor 4 explodes and Pripyat is evacuated. As it continues, the narrative mainly centres around the animals left in the region, some abandoned under order, some born wild. We are also offered parallel insights into the life of one girl forced to leave her dog behind and we watch her age & see the legacy of the disaster on her life.

But this book is mainly about the animals. And I think it’s true to say I’ve never felt so invested in non-human characters (outside of fantasy). There were moments in several chapters where I actually SOBBED- such was the connection established between reader and (mostly canine) characters.

A side effect of humans being banished from the area around Chernobyl is how nature was allowed to thrive. The formerly domesticated animals have a hard time surviving in the lharshness of the new natural order of things but there is also a savage beauty about the forest, a ‘tender savagery’, to steal some poetic words from the author.

Again, without spoiling, I enjoyed the shifts in the narrative focus and how the story eventually played out. This was, in many ways, a far more beautiful tale than I’d expected.

Unexpectedly Beautiful

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Absolutely wonderful prose by the incredible Anthony McGowan. Superb start, slower in the middle and a wonderful second half, particularly towards and including the end. Not since Michelle Paver have I felt an animal come alive on the page as much as Zorya and Misha did.

The second half

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WHY DOES EVERYONE DIE.
This was the biggest problem for me. Everyone died.
Why. WHYYYY.

The dogs

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