Can This Battle-Scarred Dog Ever Find His Way Home?

Paul Yoon’s deeply moving novel “Etna” explores the aftermath of war with an unconventional narrator.

By Fiona Maazel

ETNA, by Paul Yoon

There is a long and delightful tradition of novels being narrated by animals and objects (I’m looking at you, Tibor Fischer, author of “The Collector Collector,” narrated by … a bowl). The choice isn’t everyone’s Milk-Bone, but it is certainly mine. An unconventional point of view changes the sight lines and can dilate what might otherwise have gone unnoticed.

The same can often be accomplished with a very young narrator, though a child’s voice risks being insipid. Less risky might be telling a story from, say, a mature dog’s perspective. And if that story is about a dog — a war veteran — trying to find his way home, driven by a primal need for home, well, you’ve got a tear-jerker in the making. By the close of Part 1 of Paul Yoon’s wonderful new novel, “Etna,” I was weeping freely. I’m not sure anyone needs to hear about the puddle I was in by novel’s end. Read the full review at the New York Times.