The Mountaintop School For Dogs And Other Second Chances - Softcover

Cooney, Ellen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0544483936 ISBN 13: 9780544483934

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2015

Synopsis

New and Noteworthy from USA TodayA 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 this title

Review

Ellen Cooney's own dogs served as the inspiration for many of the dog characters in her new novel, The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances. Meet Andy, Skip, and Maxine.

Andy Maxine

Andy

Andy was my go-to guy the whole time I was writing The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances. The dogs who are my characters are in rehab from lives of hurt caused by humans. I’d put my hands on the fur of this guy and look into his eyes and marvel how he has no idea that not all dogs on earth have his peace, his deep sense of self, his awareness that life is a pretty good thing. This dog thinks abuse is when his dinner is ten minutes late (he can tell time precisely, based on feeding times). Of course he doesn’t know, or care, that I’m a writer. But he likes when I read to him to try stuff out. I love what he does when I stop to make a change to a sentence: paws me in a thump to get going again with my voice.

Maxine

She came as a timid, easily frightened, anxious-to-please pup, as if she were saying over and over, “Please don’t send me back to where I was. ” And now? She’s complicated. She’s a dog-in-progress. I love seeing her real self slowly being revealed. I love how she suddenly comes to me to give me a kiss on the side of my mouth with one tiny quick tongue-action. I love how she head-butts my hand to get pats. I love how she looks up to my Golden, Andy, the eldest of my dog-family; she’s always watching him, always adoring him. And Skip? Poor Skip: he’s doing his best. There’s some jealousy. But sometimes he seems to smile at her. I think he’s starting to like her.

Skip

Skip, who has sunlight inside him, is a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, undersize, runty. I was walking Skippy recently and a car passed with a greyhound in the back seat, its beautiful angular face up close to the window, and I almost waved, saying, “Hi, Alfie,” because of the greyhound who’s a major dog-character in The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances. Skip looked up and gave me an expression of, Hey, don’t you go getting fond-like of strange dogs when you’re with me. I do wish dogs could know things they can’t know—I can’t help it. I wish Skip knew that when he came into my life as a near-feral rescue and I had to educate him, home-school-like, he turned out to inspire this novel.

Skip

Book Description

HMH hardcover, 2014, previous ISBN 978-0-544-23615-8

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0544483936
• ISBN 13: 9780544483934
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304