Dogs of the Deadlands

What’s it about?

The story.

In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explodes and thousands of people are ordered to evacuate at once, taking almost nothing with them. Young Natasha is forced to abandon her beloved puppy, Zoya, at the roadside as the buses pull away. What follows is the story of the dogs left behind: Zoya, and later her sons Misha and Bratan, who must learn to survive in the Deadlands - the poisoned, emptied exclusion zone where nature is roaring back and the forest now belongs to wolves, bears and lynx. Anthony McGowan writes their struggle with unsentimental power: hunger, cold, predators and the ever-present danger of a place humans have fled, set against moments of startling beauty and tenderness. Keith Robinson's illustrations capture both the menace and the grace of this strange wild. Across the years, the thread of Natasha's love for the dog she had to leave pulls the story toward a quietly devastating, hopeful conclusion. Unflinching but never gratuitous, this is a modern animal-survival classic in the tradition of the great dog stories - one that trusts young readers with real stakes, real loss, and the enduring bond between people and the animals they love.