The Dog Stars

I fished. I’d set down my pack against a still green tree. The kayak sled. My rifle. I passed up the beetle kill, the standing dead trees that broke and fell in a hard wind, and walked further into the green. I always fished a stretch of woods that had not died, or that was coming back. I set down the pack and breathed the smell of running water, of cold stone, of fir and spruce, like the sachets my mother used to keep in a sock drawer. I breathed and thanked something that was not exactly God, something that was still here. I could almost imagine that it was still before when we were young and many things still lived.

Hig has survived the end of civilization, brought about by a deadly flu that has killed everyone he knows, the survivors of which are locked in a battle to the death for scarce resources. Climate change has taken hold, and nature is suffering mightily as well. Millions of species are either extinct or on the border of it. The world may never see another elephant, another trout, another eagle. He is tormented by the death of his beloved wife, who was pregnant with their first child when she died. His best friend is his dog, Jasper, who serves as his co-pilot in the little Cessna, which Hig uses to patrol the perimeter of what he and his lone neighbor consider to be their land, their resources, their houses. They sometimes travel to visit a small community of Mennonites, the only people he has met in 9 years who have not tried to kill him. They are suffering from a blood disease, which is considered to be extremely contagious, which keeps them safe from those who would rob them of whatever crops they can grow. His flights are limited by the amount of fuel his little airplane can hold. Only once in the 9 years since the fall has he ever heard a voice over the Cessna’s radio, a voice from an airport that is beyond the point of no return.

Hig is a gentle man, trapped in a violent world. Though he bitterly misses his family and friends, he still marvels at the beauty of a tree, a stream, the stars at night. He clings to the hope that there may be decent people out there, somewhere, and that maybe he will be able to find them someday. All evidence is to the contrary. His neighbor’s position of ‘shoot first, don’t talk’ is different from his, ‘talk first, shoot only if needed’, but so far, his own position has nearly gotten him killed. He desperately wants more from life than this brutal existence. He needs it, to save his soul.

The Dog Stars is a remarkable book, full of small beauties, hidden amongst the many horrors of being left behind in such a world. Hig is a poet at heart, and the author, Peter Heller, has an MFA in fiction and poetry. I would say he has put both to remarkable use in The Dog Stars. I hope that he writes more fiction.  This was the kind of book that I could easily see myself reading again; though I got it from the library, I will probably buy it when it comes out in paperback.