The Road
Cormac McCarthy
Like The Dog Stars, it follows two travellers through a ruined landscape after catastrophe. Its sparse, unadorned sentences and its focus on a father and son's love will feel familiar to readers drawn to Hig's struggle.
12 books to read next
Books Like The Dog Stars
If you loved The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
Readers who love The Dog Stars usually come for its spare, lyrical prose, its quiet attention to the natural world, and the bond between Hig and his dog Jasper. The novel moves between bleak survival and small moments of tenderness, and its pace is unhurried. Its hope is earned rather than sentimental, and its premise, a world after a pandemic, gives it a melancholy tone that many readers find absorbing.
Survival after collapse
Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandel
It also begins with a pandemic that wipes out most of humanity and then looks at the survivors. Its braided structure and its belief that art and connection outlast disaster echo the hopeful undercurrent of Heller's novel.
Earth abides
George Rippey Stewart
A classic of the post-apocalyptic genre, it follows one man who survives a plague and watches society slowly rebuild. Its meditative pace and close attention to the land suit readers who valued Hig's reflections on loss.
Bonds with animals
Watership Down
Richard Adams, Richard Adams
A group of rabbits leaves a doomed home to find a safe place, with loyalty and courage at its centre. Readers who were moved by the loyalty between Hig and Jasper will find the same emotional weight here.
Old Yeller
Fred Gipson
Set on a hard frontier, it is a story of a boy and his dog tested by harsh times. Its plain, direct voice and its unflinching look at loyalty and loss will appeal to readers who loved the dog story at the heart of The Dog Stars.
The Art of Racing in the Rain
Garth Stein, Christopher Evan Welch
Narrated by a dog who loves his family, it asks what loyalty and devotion mean. Readers who connected with Jasper's place in Hig's life will find the same deep affection and a narrator who sees the world with clarity.
Flight and wild country
Night flight,
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
A slim, lyrical novel about pilots flying over dangerous and lonely routes, with a deep sense of the sky. Readers who loved Hig's Cessna and his solitary flights will find the same reverence for the air.
Into the Wild
Jon Krakauer
It tells the true story of a young man who goes alone into the Alaskan wilderness. Readers drawn to Hig's reflections on wild land and the cost of solitude will find the same questions about how people survive far from others.
The Snow Child
Eowyn Ivey
Set in the Alaskan wilderness, it follows a couple struggling to survive a hard frontier life. Its quiet, luminous language and its blend of harsh landscape and hope will appeal to readers who loved the nature in The Dog Stars.
Go deeper
Gilead
Marilynne Robinson
A reflective, lyrical novel told as a letter from an aging preacher to his son. Readers who loved Heller's meditative voice and his thoughts on faith and what makes life worth living will find much to savour here.
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry
A long, humane western about two former Texas Rangers and the friendship that carries them through hardship. Readers who valued the bond between Hig and Bangley, and the sense of men facing a harsh land together, will find it rewarding.
Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood
A post-catastrophe novel told by a lone survivor who remembers how the world ended. Readers who were gripped by Hig's account of a shattered society will appreciate its unsettling vision and its questions about what humanity has lost.
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