The Boy and the Dog is part fable, part literary fiction. Seishu Hase tells the story of Tamon the dog, who has been separated from his owner after the 2011 tsunami in Japan. Over the next few years, Tamon slowly travels down the length of Japan searching for his family: the boy he loves, Hikaru, whose family moves south into the mountains after the tragedy. The book is split into five chapters, each one featuring a different character in whose life Tamon makes a brief but much-needed cameo before moving on with his personal quest. Despite the heavy themes and the turmoils Tamon and the characters experience, The Boy and The Dog remains a light and very lovely read as Tamon infuses each person’s story, however briefly, with a silver lining.

For each of these people, Tamon represents some essential, healing presence. In the first chapter, “The Man and the Dog”, the man, Kazumasa, nicknames Tamon his lucky charm. In time to come, this proves both true and ironic for all the characters. Indeed, Tamon does offer each person solace and even luck where there is little. All of them live stressful, lonely, caged-in lives. They are all desperate for some financial or relational breakthrough, whether they explicitly recognise it or not and in Tamon, they find a deep level of comfort life otherwise denies them. However, by the end of chapter two, “The Thief and the Dog”, a pattern emerges which suggests that Tamon appears before an oncoming death, or the figurative end of a life, for better or for worse. In “The Prostitute and the Dog”, it is unclear if the prostitute lives or dies at the end, but all signs point to how she is doomed either way, having cornered herself into an impossible situation.

The characters all recognise that Tamon is looking for a specific someone and that he can only be with them for a short period of time before he needs to move on. Despite all the turmoil he is briefly witness to and changes he personally experiences, Tamon remains a steadfast and unchanging character. In all five chapters, no matter what changes— his owner, name and surroundings— he is the same: loyal, obedient, sensitive, proud and kind. At the same time, he stays focused on his mission to find Hikaru. Hase also suggests that Tamon eventually leads to the characters from different chapters forming a connection with one another, mirroring the way they first developed a connection with him. The Boy and the Dog is therefore a testimony to the priceless way the presence of an animal can enhance the experience of being alive and provide hope in the deserts of our individual loneliness.