The Awareness - Softcover

Gene Stone is a former Peace Corps volunteer, journalist, and editor. He is also the author or ghostwriter of thirty-five books, including Forks Over Knives. Jon Doyle, a graduate of Loyola Marymount University, has been a restaurateur, screenwriter, and a journalist. He lives in Los Angeles.

“The Awareness is an amazing book—partly because it's such an extraordinarily gripping story, but also because I can think of no other recent novel that explores the minds of animals with such sympathy and compassion.” Nathan Runkle, Founder and Executive Director of Mercy for Animals

“If you liked Planet of the Apes and Aesop’s Fables, you’re going to love those two genres coming together in The Awareness. It’s a fantastical world in which nonhuman animals gain a higher level of consciousness and turn the tables on animal abusers. The struggles they endure, both physically and ethically, ultimately offer a hopeful message about coexistence that could teach us all a lesson.” Paul Shapiro, the vice president of farm animal protection for the Humane Society of the United States

“Every once in a while a piece of fiction comes along that can change the way we think about the world. The Awareness is one of those transformational novels—it’s a wonderfully written book that tells an entertaining and suspenseful story, but even more, it would be almost impossible to read this book and not come away with a new and heightened understanding of the human-animal relationship.” Bruce Friedrich, Senior Director for Strategic Initiatives at Farm Sanctuary

"This book... should help us rewild our hearts, expand our compassion footprint, and stop the reprehensible treatment that we mindlessly dole out.” Marc Bekoff, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals, Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals, and The Animal Manifesto

"What a wild ride this book is! The writing is so beautiful and it was a doorway into animal consciousness. This novel stirs up every dark fear that what we do does indeed come back to us.” Kathy Freston, bestselling author of The Veganist and The Lean

"This is a book all those who care—and all those who don't care—about animals must read.” Bernard E. Rollin, professor of philosophy, animal sciences, and biomedical sciences at Colorado State University, author of Animal Rights and Human Morality (1981), The Unheeded Cry: Animal Consciousness, Animal Pain and Scientific Change (1988), Farm Animal Welfare (1995), and Science and Ethics (2006)

From Psychology Today
 
“The Awareness is one of the most powerful and moving novels in the area of human-animal relationships that I've read in a while. Almost every single page made me stop and think about who we are and who ‘they’ (other animals) are and how we mistreat them in numerous different ways. But, what if the tables turned and ‘they’ became ‘us’ and treated us as if we were they? This is the basis of this thought provoking work of fiction, featuring among other animals, a bear in the Canadian Rockies, an elephant in a traveling circus in Texas, a pig on a hog farm in North Carolina, and a dog living with his beloved owner in New York.
 
I wrote this about it when I reviewed it and after going through it again I realize I could easily have heaped more praise on this inspiring and deep (as you want it to be) book.
 
Every now and again I sit back and wonder what it would be like if other animals could really fight back against the egregious violence to which we subject them in a wide variety of venues ranging from research laboratories and classrooms to zoos, circuses, rodeos, factory farms, and in their own homes in ours and in the wild. This thought experiment takes life in The Awareness and reflects their points of view, and it's clear they do not like what routinely and thoughtlessly happens to themselves, their families, and their friends. By changing the playing field Gene Stone and Jon Doyle force us to reflect how we wantonly and selfishly abuse other animals and the price we would pay if they could truly fight back. This challenging book also asks us to reflect on the well-supported fact that we need other animals as much as they need us. It should help us rewild our hearts, expand our compassion footprint, and stop the reprehensible treatment that we mindlessly dole out.
 
My emphatic suggestion is to read this book, reflect on its very important messages, and share with as many people as possible.”