CavePeople Book Club - "The Dog Stars" by Peter Heller

Ladies invited. 322 pages.

This is a dinner potluck.

# The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

Hig is a pilot. He lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport in Colorado with his dog Jasper and an unnerving neighbor named Bangley, a former Marine who is very good at killing people. A flu pandemic has wiped out most of humanity.

Hig keeps flying his 1956 Cessna partly for reconnaissance, partly because the sky is the one place that still feels like it did before.

This is a post-apocalyptic novel that has almost nothing in common with other post-apocalyptic novels. There are no zombies, no factions, no dystopian government. There is just a man, a dog, a gun-toting curmudgeon, and the question of whether beauty and love are still worth reaching for when almost everything is gone.

Heller writes in a fractured, spare prose style that takes about twenty pages to get used to and then becomes completely addictive. The landscape — the Rockies, the high desert, the sky — is a character as much as any human.

At its heart, this is a book about a man deciding whether to let himself love again. That question, asked quietly against an extraordinary backdrop, is what makes it linger long after you've finished.

Coming attraction: The Dog Stars has been adapted for film by director Ridley Scott — the man who gave us Blade Runner — with Jacob Elordi as Hig and Josh Brolin as Bangley. It opens August 28th. Read the book first.

Mancave Books Read Previously

2017
Disgrace by Coetzee F
The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway F
The Harder They Come by Boyle F
Blood Meridian by McCarthy F

2018
Where Men Win Glory by Krakauer NF
Sea Wolf by London F
Line Becomes a River by Cantu NF
Elephant Company by Croke NF
A Gentleman in Moscow by Towles F

2019
Blowing Up Rachel by Stevens NF
The Most Dangerous Man in America by Minutaglio NF
AI Superpowers by Lee NF
Anne Frank: The Untold Story by Wijk NF
Narcissus and Goldmund by Hesse F
A Case of Need by Crichton F
Johnstown Flood by McCullough NF

2020
Kinds of Winter by Olesen NF
Jayber Crowe by Berry F
Flamenco Academy by Bird F
The Emerald Mile by Fedarko NF
Desert Solitaire by Abbey F
Horseman Passby by McMurtry F
Truck by Perry NF
West with the Night by Markham NF
Flags of Our Fathers by Bradley NF

2021
The Fifth Season F
China in 10 Words NF
The 7th Day F
2034 F
This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends NF
Bad Monkey F
Noah's Compass F
Open Season F
The Razor's Edge F

2022
Julian F
Of Wolves and Men NF
The Land of Little Rain NF
Arizona's Deadliest Gunfight NF

2025
Why Nations Succeed and Fail NF
My Brilliant Friend F
Neuromancer F

2026
About Grace F
Breakneck NF