內(nèi)容簡(jiǎn)介:Hello!

Do you like to cook? We do, too. We even have our own cooking show, even though one of us really isn't old enough to be on the show.

But Mom said we had to share.

Anyway, we hope you like our show!

作者簡(jiǎn)介:What dog lover would not want to know exactly what her or his pet was thinking—and hear those thoughts articulated verbally? And what if it were indeed possible to teach a dog to communicate as humans do? This is the goal of the grieving widower at the heart of Carolyn Parkhurst's quirky but moving debut novel The Dogs of Babel.

Parkhurst's bold debut grew out of an inventive "history" of canine linguistics she penned while in college. This wholly fictional "research" paper provided Parkhurst with the basis of what would become The Dogs of Babel. "I think every dog owner has wondered, what is my dog thinking?" she explained to Bookpage. "What do they make of what they observe about my life? I wish it were true that we could talk and find out what they're thinking, but I don't think it's ever going to happen."

This bizarre premise was actually a means for Parkhurst to explore the themes of grief, loss, redemption, and communication that form the emotional core of The Dogs of Babel. In the novel, a linguistics professor named Paul Iverson finds his beloved wife Lexy lying dead beneath a thirty-foot apple tree in their yard. Not knowing whether Lexy slipped from the branches accidentally or willfully plummeted to her death, Paul turns to the sole witness to uncover the secret of Lexy's death. Unfortunately, this witness happens to be Loralei, his pet Rhodesian Ridgeback. Devastated, Paul abandons his job and embarks on a quest to teach his dog speech in order to discover what, exactly, happened to his wife.

The eccentricity of this premise is not lost on the author, who admits, "There's a real issue of getting readers to suspend their belief when your premise is a man who is trying to teach his dog to talk," but said, "My hope is that, as you learn more about Paul and what he's like, it's believable that he might follow this unlikely course."

Thanks to Parkhurst's skillful blend of absurdity and genuine humanity, readers not only bought her outlandish premise but enthusiastically embraced the writer as a significant new talent, Book magazine even named her as a "new writer to watch." The Dogs of Babel received raves from a string of publications including The Los Angeles Times, Esquire, People magazine, Marie Claire, and Entertainment Weekly. Furthermore, the novel helped Parkhurst come to terms with her own tragic loss. "My dog, Chelsea, who died during the time I was writing the book, was certainly an inspiration to me," she told Identity Theory.com. "I think that the experience of living with such a sweet dog is probably what made me want to write about dogs in the first place."

Carolyn Parkhurst followed up her touching smash debut with a novel that is no less insightful, but somewhat more humorous. Lost and Found explores the relationships between seven mismatched couples as they compete in the reality TV show from which the novel takes its name. The fictional show is a global scavenger hunt, and the participants find more than they bargained for as relationships become increasingly strained as the game's stakes grow higher. The book generated more positive notices for Parkhurst. Kirkus Reviews stated that Lost and Found surpasses Parkhurst's critically acclaimed debut, adding that, "Given the high-concept premise, Parkhurst has avoided the pitfall of simply engineering a joyride..." Deserved praise for sure, but what else would anyone expect from the writer of The Dogs of Babel?