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The story says a dog crossed first.
A chieftain, hunted and outnumbered, approached a flooding river with no bridge and no time.
His dog ran and hurdled the gap, landed clean, and turned back...
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The Blurb
Race isn't always black and white.
Based on a true story, a travelogue of two old friends who go to Ireland looking for a good story. Ireland has other plans. Tony and Paradise arrive expecting Guinness, music, women, stories and the freedom that comes from being somewhere nobody knows you.
Then they head north.
Dublin becomes Doolin. Doolin becomes Belfast. Belfast becomes Limavad, and the story becomes something more complicated.
Race. Friendship. Sectarianism. Masculinity. Belonging. The identities we choose and the ones other people choose for us.
Paradise believes life belongs to people willing to leap before they know where they'll land.
Tony isn't so sure.
Waiting for them is an old Irish legend about a hunted man, a flooding river, and the dog that crossed first.
Funny, fast-moving, and deliberately compact, Leap of the Dog is a literary journey through Ireland and Northern Ireland about two men discovering that traveling somewhere isn't the same as understanding it.
My Review
A sparsely written narrative of two friends making their way from the South of Ireland to the North.
American Tony and his friend Paradise are great characters. Both intent on a journey of wine, women and song, what they find is a legend of a man and his dog that crossed a river.
They are rather taken with Ireland: the beautiful landscapes, the stories people tell so willingly over a pint of Guinness and the anonymity of nobody knowing who they are. However, when they cross the border into the North, they find the reception much less warm.
This novella has much to recommend it. The language of this literary novella is beautiful and every word has been carefully placed. It is sparsely written and all the better for it, as it lends a certain immediacy to the novel. It has a depth to it that the author has expertly crafted in this short piece of literary fiction.
It is appropriately paced and enables the reader to feel as though they were on the journey alongside Tony and Paradise. It is worth reading in one sitting if you have the time.
I highly recommend this unusual and lyrical novel. I would love to hear your thoughts on this book.
Book Details
ISBN: 979 8191032580
Publisher: Independently published
Formats: e-book and paperback (currently available on Kindle Unlimited)
No. of Pages: 147 (paperback)
Purchase Links
About the Author
His books include Global Warming: A Love Story, Nefarious: Sailboat Racing in the Salish Sea, Ogden Messiah, The Vernal Equinox of Death and Kisses and Other Short Stories, and the poetry collection Seven.
His latest novel, Leap of the Dog, follows two American friends across Ireland and Northern Ireland, exploring friendship, ancestry, race, religion, identity, and belonging. Inspired in part by Limavady and the legend behind its Irish name, Léim an Mhadaidh, the novel reflects AJ’s enduring interest in the unexpected connections among people, places, and histories.
AJ’s work blends humor, emotional honesty, cultural observation, and a commitment to telling deeply human stories without sanding away their complexity. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his sons.
You can also find AJ at:
(ARC and media courtesy of the author)
(all opinions are my own)
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