Stanley and Sophie

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.

A wise, wry book about two border terriers - by the keenly intelligent, prize-winning writer who lost her heart to them.

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

So begins the story of Kate Jennings's unexpected love affair with two border terriers, first Stanley, then a few years later Sophie. A fiercely intelligent writer, an astute observer of people and her surroundings, a recent widow not ready to face her grief, an irascible Australian with no time for indulgent New Yorkers and their pampered pets, Jennings falls hard. Swept off her feet and surprised by the depth of her love, Jennings's life is suddenly overtaken by Stanley and when she is seduced into getting him a companion, by the pair of them.

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.

Kate Jennings, a poet, essayist, and novelist, comes from the Riverina. She attended Sydney University in the late 1960s, where she gained notoriety as a feminist activist. She moved to New York City in 1979. Her novel SNAKE (1996) was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, as was MORAL HAZARD (2002), which was based on her experiences as a Wall Street speechwriter. Her work has been in contention for the Booker, IMPAC, and Los Angeles Times literary prizes. She has won the prestigious Christina Stead and Adelaide Festival prizes and been honored with the Australian Literary Societys gold medal.

Stanley and Sophie
Random House Australia
Author: Kate Jennings
ISBN: 9781741667493
RRP: $29.95


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