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Levi is a special dog. Rescued as a pup by Rahel and Carl Liliencron, he is a member of the family. With incredible intelligence and a keen understanding of humans, Levi is able to perform tricks other dogs may only dream of.
He is a good Jewish dog, in a good Jewish home, in Berlin. However, when the Nazis come to power, the Liliencron family must act. Levi is renamed Sirius, a non-Jewish name. He adopts this new persona until the family must flee Germany or be killed.
Sirius arrives in Hollywood, where Jack Warner of Warner Bros. Studios is so taken with the dog that he casts him as Hercules, the four-legged hero in a series of films, which becomes enormously famous.
From being a star in name, Sirius is now a real star, and he loves it. His success rockets, and he participates in The Greatest Show on Earth, as a circus performer, dazzling crowds with his tricks and intelligence. However, he soon ends up back in Berlin, where circumstances deliver him to Hitler, where he is re-christened Hansi and enjoys the life of a Fuhrer. Despite his new position as Hitler’s sidekick, the little dog participates in the Revolution to bring the Nazis down, whatever the cost.
Sirius is a delightful book, the dog himself is ludicrously intelligent and sheds light on the foreign acts undertaken by humanity from an innocent viewpoint.
Sirius illuminates the humanity within himself as an animal, which is sharply contrasted with the cruelty and unpredictability of those humans around him. Amid war and Hollywood dazzle, the world is seen anew through the eyes of a dog, and what a view it is. Crown has presented a thoroughly enjoyable story which dances gracefully between comedy and tragedy, all the while retelling history as it could have been, and almost was.
Keen on reading this book? Buy your copy now.
