Stanley And Sophie, Kate Jennings

I fell in love with a prideful bundle of muscle that stood seventeen inches high. You would see a small brown dog; I saw perfection.

First and foremost, STANLEY AND SOPHIE is a book about animals, but it is also about grief and grieving - for Jennings's husband, for the city after 9/11, for the world. And it is a book about the way two rivalrous, demanding, idiosyncratic, exhilarating dogs gave Jennings daily purpose and showed her the way to her own heart.