What Is a Dog?: A Memoir

As a child, Chloe Shaw learned to escape the hardest parts of being human by immersing herself in the lives of her canine companions. Yet, in marriage and motherhood, she can no longer hide. The death of Booker, her eldest family pet, leaves her reeling and reckoning with her lifelong relationship with dogs. What follows is a meditation on one woman's life through the dog's she's loved and lost.

With artful prose and a philosophical touch, Shaw takes us on an emotional journey that proves that dogs do more than just make our lives better—they quietly (and sometimes loudly) pull us toward the person we were always meant to be.