Oprah makes a book club pick

Oprah Winfrey announced Friday that she’d chosen David Wroblewski’s “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle” as her latest book club pick, calling the debut novel a classic and the “best novel I’ve read in a long, long, long time.”

“I think this book is right up there with the greatest American novels ever written, I really do,” said Winfrey at the end of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

The novel is already one of the summer’s hottest reads and this week ranked ninth on the New York Times’ bestseller list. It is certain to get a lot hotter with one of the biggest boosts any book can get these days: a little sticker on the cover proclaiming “Edgar Sawtelle” as one of Winfrey’s book club selections.

“Edgar Sawtelle,” which Wroblewski worked on for about a decade, is the story of a mute boy who communicates best with his dogs. Wroblewski grew up in Wisconsin, the setting for his book, and now lives near Denver with his partner, writer Kimberly McClintock.