About the Book
New and Noteworthy from USA Today
A Best New Book of the Week from People "This book will grab your heart and not let go." --John Grogan, author of Marley & Me"A wise, engaging meditation on dogs, love, and recovery from pain. Come. Sit. Read!" --Lily King, author of Euphoriaand The Pleasing Hour "If you've ever loved a dog, this book is a must-read." --Missourian The Sanctuary is a refuge for strays and rescued dogs. Evie has joined a training program there, though she knows almost nothing about animals. Like the greyhound who won't move, the Rottweiler with attitude problems, or the hound who might be a candidate for search-and-rescue, Evie has a troubled past. But as they all learn, no one should stay prisoner to a life she didn't choose. Heartfelt and hilarious in turn, this is a deeply moving story of the countless ways in which humans and canines help each other find new lives, new selves, and new hope. "This is a miracle of a book . . . Cooney is such a wise genius of a writer, and her sentences keep surprising you, but are never the point in themselves. I read with a kind of mental breathlessness. If Cooney needs someone to convince her to write a sequel, I volunteer." --Gail Godwin, author of Evensong and Publishing "A moving and joyous romp . . . All the dogs are wonderfully, fully drawn characters . . . A brilliantly crafted, uplifting book." --The Bark
About the Author :
ELLEN COONEY is the author of A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies and other novels. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker and many literary journals. She has taught writing at MIT, Harvard, and Boston College, and now lives in Maine with her dogs Andy, Skip, and Maxine--who are each, in their own way, rescues. Jensen Olaya was born in Bataan, Philippines. The city is known for the Bataan Death March during WWII, but she knows it as the land of lush rice fields and friendly people. Her family emigrated when she was four, during much political upheaval. Corazon Aquino, the first female president of the Philippines, was dealing with a divided country after the twenty-year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. It was a significant moment for a young girl to witness, but fortunately, her dad's military service took them out of the turmoil. As a US military brat Jensen's lived in Bataan, Yokohama, San Diego, and New York. She will never forget the smell of jet fuel, walking along the tarmac as a kid, next to fighter planes parked on top of the USS Midway. Fun fact: Jensen grew up in the same military base and went to the same high school that Mark Hamill did in Japan. To this day, her dream role is to command a fleet of rebel intergalactic space rangers, like an unlikely hero version of a Top Gun Maverick, in a galaxy far away. Jensen studied classical singing (she's a Mezzo) and world theater at San Diego State University. Her early twenties were pivotal; her mom lost her decade-long battle with cancer right after Jensen graduated. In Jensen's last semester, she was shuffling between performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream, shuttling her mom to her doctor's appointments, and managing her medications. During this chapter, acting was the only thing Jensen had to preserve her spirit. And that's when she decided to go all in. If she had to live in a world without her mother, then she would live with the tenacity to fill her life with purpose. In 2009, she sought out a scholarship to attend Columbia University's MFA in acting program and moved to NYC. She has been a proud New York actor ever since. As a stage-trained actor, Jensen is at home working in theater as well as commercials, animated TV, and voice-over more broadly. She is proud to be helping redefine Asian American representation for audiences across young adult, sci-fi, self-development, women's fiction, and children's content. Over the last twenty years, she's played a range of characters, from sprightly and sassy to androgynous and mythical, to clumsy and badass. As a mother of two children, she's focused on narratives that prioritize racial and gender equality, antiracism, inclusivity, parent-child relationships, and finding the magic in the everyday. Projects elevating Asian American politics and showcasing the nuances of Asian family dramas are also important to her. When not acting, Jensen is teaching her kids Tagalog, and about their mixed Filipino, Swedish, Scottish, and American heritage. Susie Berneis is a professional voice-over artist. She has a BA in English and theater from the University of Michigan and more than twenty years of community theater experience. Her audiobook narrations include The Secret of Raven Point by Jennifer Vanderbes, which won an AudioFile Earphones Award in 2014.
