Product Description

Celebrating the everyday deviance of ordinary men and women, these stories draw on the bizarre and the hilarious. Two straight A students murder the school bully, a man feigns amnesia after a mugging and attempts to win back his ex-wife, and a bored wife spends all her inheritance at an auction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #669573 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Susan Perabo scored a goal that eludes most authors--she succeeded in getting a collection of short stories published in both the US and the UK without first having written and published a novel. This is a rare feat and a testimony to the sheer brilliance of the stories found in Explaining Death to the Dog. Perabo gives glimpses into the secret and bizarre worlds of apparently ordinary individuals and shows how a person's fate can be dictated by the odd kinks in their emotional make-up: "My mother, beside herself with loss, spent thirty-five thousand dollars on lottery tickets in nine months."

She gives us the two kids who know something awful about the death of one of their classmates, the woman who spends all of her mother's legacy on a dress that belonged to Princess Diana, the man who pretends to have amnesia to try to trick his ex-wife back into their failed marriage and the woman who has recently lost a baby and is trying to make her dog understand what has taken place--"After the baby died, I found it imperative that my German Shepherd, Stu, understand and accept the concept of death."

Susan Perabo teaches creative writing at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arkansas. Her work has appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies. Explaining Death to the Dog is one of those books that makes one look at people on the bus in a different way. --Anna Davis

Customer Reviews

quirky, entertaining short stories
Thoroughly recommended to anyone who appreciates well written offbeat short stories.

Explaining Death to the Dog
I absolutely loved this collection of short stories, which was a suprise, as I am more of a novel reader. Each of these stories provides an insight into parts of life that most people prefer to ignore or sweep under the carpet. What I found so appealing about the stories were their examination of uniquely modern emotional and psychological circumstances. I think that is what allows you to become so emotionally involved in some of the stories, which are genuinely heart-wrenching at times. In each story, also, there are a number of characters whom you may empathise with. For example, the Grandmother who spends $300 per week on lotto tickets, because that's all she has left to hope for. Or her daughter, who is desparately trying to save her from ruin and dissapointment. Each story will touch you differently and in a very real way, and I highly recommend it. One small caveat: dont take this on holiday with you as I did, its definatly a winter read!!