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‘Like a master class in memoir writing. Honest, perceptive and properly funny’
Neil Gaiman
‘A wonderful and very special book’
Adam Kay, author of This is Going to Hurt
‘Glamorous. Heart-breaking. Hilarious. Feminist. Life-changing’
Katherine Ryan
‘Heartwarming and heartbreaking all at the same time! Genuinely couldn’t put it down’
Alan Carr
‘Incredibly moving, always funny and brilliantly written. I urge everyone to read it’
Frank Skinner
‘I can’t begin to express how much I love it’
Caroline Criado-Perez, author of Invisible Women
‘LOVELY. Sad and funny and warm and DOGS’
Marian Keyes
‘I read it in one sitting – it’s so blinking good’
Lorraine Kelly
‘Funny, sparklingly honest and heart-breaking’
Bel Mooney, Daily Mail
‘A book that will leave you smiling but with a lump in your throat’
Mail on Sunday, ‘100 Hottest Summer Books 2019’
* * *
The funny, heart-breaking, wonderfully told story of love, family and overwhelming loss which led Emily Dean to find hope and healing in the dog she always wanted.
Growing up with the Deans was a fabulous training ground for many things: ignoring unpaid bills, being the most entertaining guest at dinner, deconstructing poetry. It was never home for the dog Emily craved.
Emily shared the lively chaos with her beloved older sister Rachael, her rock. Over the years the sisters bond grew ever closer. As Rachael went on to have the cosy family and treasured dog, Giggle, Emily threw herself into unsettled adventure – dog ownership remaining a distant dream.
Then, tragically, Rachael is diagnosed with cancer. In just three devastating years Emily loses not only her sister but both her parents as well.
This is the funny heart-breaking, wonderfully told story of how Emily discovers that it is possible to overcome the worst that life can throw at you, that it’s never too late to make peace with your past, and that the right time is only ever now, as she finally starts again with her very own dog – the adorable Shih-tzu named Raymond.
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Reviews
'Gorgeous, heartfelt and uplifting'
'Funny yet heartfelt'
'[Emily] writes with verve and vigour, and you will be rooting for her'
'You will cry as much as you'll laugh. A must-read memoir.'
'Emily is both searingly honest and funny, and ultimately gives us hope that things can always get better. *****'
Go and get this book. It's something that will make you laugh and cry especially if you are a dog owner. You'll find it one of the most joyous reads you'll ever ever have.
'A wonderful and very special book that made me squeak with laughter and had me in floods of tears.'
'Both very funny and moving, Emily Dean's writing will make you laugh, cry and stroke your dog (or any dog).'
'God this is funny, sad and compulsively readable'
'Really beautiful, but also very funny and very sad book'
'Like a master class in memoir writing. Honest, perceptive and properly funny'
'I read it in one sitting - it's so blinking good'
'Sparky, moving memoir . . . Dean pulls off quite a feat in managing to write affectingly, yet still wittily about her unspeakable grief . . . Dean is too smart for any pat, soft-focus conclusions, but this book still leaves you smiling and with a lump in your throat *****'
'I can't begin to express how much I love it . . . I tore through this and finished it last night and my conclusion is that if you're not Everybody Died, So I Got a Dog people, you're not my kind of people'
'The funniest and most charming story ever written. Glamorous. Heart-breaking. Hilarious. Feminist. Life-changing.'
'Incredibly moving, always funny and brilliantly written. I urge everyone to read it.'
'A touching and life-affirming memoir . . . a thoughtful glimpse into bereavement and a celebration of the undoubted healing power of pets'
'Funny, sparklingly honest and heart-breaking'
'Funny and heartbreaking in equal measure'