Dog Years - Couverture souple

“Tender and amusing...Doty brilliantly captures the qualities that make dogs endearing.” (The New Yorker)

“Life-affirming, lyrical, and profoundly affecting...Only Mark Doty could have written a dog book...that covers so much ground.” (Pam Houston, O magazine)

“Potent and expressive...The weight of Doty’s adoration for his pets is expressed with...eloquence throughout.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

“This is Doty at his best....Doty does in fact make the unsayable sayable, bringing the ungraspable within our reach.” (Los Angeles Times)

“A tender reflection on love and loss, this is MARLEY & ME for the cerebral.” (People)

“Doty pays loving tribute to two retrievers...DOG YEARS is a warm, thought-provoking discourse.” (Entertainment Weekly)

“A wounding yet arresting memoir about living with his dogs...Doty’s gorgeous prose and piercing meditations...are simply sublime.” (Washington Post Magazine)

“Lyrical and sensitive...Doty poetically expresses what many have felt but few can articulate.” (USA Today)

“Doty is at his best...exploring the mirrorlike quality of a dog’s gaze or the inextricable duality of hope and despair..” (New York magazine)

“A meditation on how we can live with hope...Dog Years wrestles with the Big Questions.” (Houston Chronicle)

Why do dogs speak so profoundly to our inner lives? When Mark Doty decides to adopt a dog as a companion for his dying partner, he finds himself bringing home Beau, a large golden retriever, malnourished and in need of loving care. Beau joins Arden, the black retriever, to complete their family. As Beau bounds back into life, the two dogs become Mark Doty's intimate companions, his solace, and eventually the very life force that keeps him from abandoning all hope during the darkest days. Their tenacity, loyalty, and love inspire him when all else fails.

Dog Years is a remarkable work: a moving and intimate memoir interwoven with profound reflections on our feelings for animals and the lessons they teach us about life, love, and loss. Mark Doty writes about the heart-wrenching vulnerability of dogs, the positive energy and joy they bring, and the gift they bear us of unconditional love. A book unlike any other, Mark Doty's surprising meditation is radiantly unsentimental yet profoundly affecting. Beautifully written, Dog Years is a classic in the making.