For Paul Gustavson, a hack writer for the wildly popular For Morons series, life is a succession of obstacles. His wife has left him, his father has suffered a debilitating stroke, his girlfriend is dating another man, he has impotency issues, and his overachieving brother invested his parents' money in stocks that tanked. Still, Paul has his friends at Bay State bar, a steady line of cocktails, and a new pair of running shoes (he’s promised himself to get in shape). And then there’s Stella, the one constant in his life, who gives him sage advice, doesn’t judge him, and gives him unconditional love. However, Stella won’t accompany Paul into his favorite dive bar. "I'll roll on dead carp, I'll even eat cat turds, but that place grosses me out." Stella, you see, is Paul's aging Lab-shepherd mix, and she knows Paul better than he knows himself.
In I Thought You Were Dead, author Pete Nelson delivers a novel that is all at once heartwarming, heartbreaking, and heart-wrenchingly funny. Most of all, it’s a story that proves that when a good dog is by your side—especially one with whom you can have an engaging conversation—life can be full of surprises.
"[I Thought You Were Dead] has a low-key, indie-movie vibe, with Stella sounding like Juno's older, world-weary aunt." --The Washington Post
"Chosen by independent booksellers as a recent No. 1 Book Sense Pick, I Thought You Were Dead, a novel about the bonds between dogs and humans, is heartfelt and nostalgic in tone . . . Stella's wisdom sets the luckless Paul on a brighter life path. It's her nobility . . . that gives the story its power." --USA Today
"'I thought you were dead,' Stella says to Paul when he returns home from a bar, on page one of Pete Nelson's new novel. Delivered by an aging, arthritic Labrador/Shepherd mix, the line displays the dry wit and dog logic that makes Stella and, by extension, much of this novel a delight. Yes, Stella talks. And the conversations are so charming and matter-of-fact that it hardly seems worth asking from whence this special power comes." --Bark Magazine
"Airy and almost miraculous . . . It's very wise about the way devotion--between animals and people, between people and people--can keep us going." --Palm Beach Post
"Stella the dog is always charming. And there's a dignity and gravity to Paul's affection for her . . . Their friendship [is] one of the best ever put down on paper." --St. Louis Post Dispatch
"Ultimately, I Thought You Were Dead is about the catastrophes that make a person realize his life is a mess, then do everything he can to put his life back together--perhaps, in the process, creating something better than he dared to hope for." --BookPage
Pete Nelson is the author of several books, including Left for Dead. He is also a singer-songwriter with a select but devoted following. He is not, however, the Pete Nelson who writes books about tree houses, although he has nothing against them. He lives in Westchester County, New York.
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Distributor: Workman Publishing Company
Publication Date: 04-13-2010
Pages: 264
Measurements: 8.50in X 5.75in X 0.88in X 0.88lb
