The Last Days of Dogtown

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

An excellent novel. A lovely and moving portrait of society's outcast living in an unforgiving and barren but harshly beautiful landscape. New York Times Book Review

In the early nineteenth century there was once a place called Dogtown. Located on a rocky outcrop at the northernmost boundary of Massachusetts Bay, it was a miserable place really, less a village than a motley collection of people who had nowhere else to go. Yet the end of a village, even one as poor and small as Dogtown, is not an altogether trivial thing.

With a sure and delicate touch, Anita Diamant shares compelling secrets and sadnesses, interweaving the lives of the mysterious black African woman Ruth, who dresses as a man; the child Sammy, who arrived in Dogtown with a note attached to his coat; the touching and tender love story of Judy Rhines and Cornelius; and presiding over all, the benign and diminutive Easter Carter, host of what passes as the local tavern.

The Last Days of Dogtown vividly brings to life an unforgettable community of eccentrics and misfits - the forgotten people of the New World who live on the fringes of polite society. With great depth of feeling, Diamant shows us the essential humanity of these quiet, small lives, lived in that harsh, windswept landscape and under that bright sky.

There will be much celebration when Anita Diamant's fans discover this gem on the shelves of their favourite bookstore. Armidale Express

Author Bio

Anita Diamant is a prize-winning journalist. She is also the author of six books about contemporary Jewish practice. Her first novel, The Red Tent, is an international bestseller, with over a million copies sold. Her second novel, Good Harbor was published in 2002 and The Last Days of Dogtown was published in 2005. Diamant lives in Massachusetts, with her husband and daughter.