Men and Dogs - by Katie Crouch (Paperback)

About the Book

From the author of the "New York Times" bestseller "Girls in Trucks" comes a hilarious and moving novel about loyalty, family, and a prodigal daughter's return home.

Book Synopsis

When Hannah Legare was 11, her father went on a fishing trip in the Charleston harbor and never came back. And while most of the town and her family accepted Buzz's disappearance, Hannah remained steadfastly convinced of his imminent return.

Twenty years later Hannah's new life in San Francisco is unraveling. Her marriage is on the rocks, her business is bankrupt. After a disastrous attempt to win back her husband, she ends up back at her mother's home to "rest up", where she is once again sucked into the mystery of her missing father. Suspecting that those closest are keeping secrets -- including Palmer, her emotionally closed, well-mannered brother and Warren, the beautiful boyfriend she left behind -- Hannah sets out on an uproarious, dangerous quest that will test the whole family's concepts of loyalty and faith.

Review Quotes

"as in her best-selling Girls in Trucks, [Crouch] writes with a dark, twisty, but approachable Southern charm."--Andrea Griffith, Library Journal

"riveting.... dive right in."--Complete Woman

"[an] indulgent chick-lit read"--Marie Claire

"[A] hot read for a hot day.... In this arresting and often very funny tale, Crouch, best-selling author of Girls in Trucks, makes a case for the redemptive power of uncompromising loyalty and love."--Coastal Living

"Crouch's prose is crisp and full of engaging details."--Pam Kelley, The Charlotte Observer

"Prepare to have your heart broken while laughing out loud at this breathtaking, scathingly sardonic novel. From her opening line--"Two days before Hannah's father disappeared, he took her out in his boat"--Crouch grabs you and never lets go.... Crouch renders San Franciscans in caustic living color... When Hannah goes home to Charleston to dry out and try to find her father, Crouch brings her eccentric Southern kinfolk to life with equal verve. In the hands of a less adept author, this tightly wound tale of one woman's unraveling and redemption might seem more grim than guffaw-worthy. But with Crouch in charge, the reader is assured of a reflective yet riotous ride." Four stars.--Meredith Maran, People

"Self-sabotaging heroines have made for amusing reading since Jane Austen, and Katie Crouch is as good at them as she is at titles.... Who can resist a local accent 'so complex it allows a woman to simultaneously seduce and reprimand in one single word'? Crouch's comic timing is a treat, as is her eye for minor details, like Palmer's damaged rescue dog, who can't bark but merely whispers 'oof.'"--Tricia Springstubb, The Cleveland Plain Dealer

About the Author

Katie Crouch's writing has appeared in Glamour, The London Guardian, and McSweeney's. She received her M.F.A. at Columbia University, and was awarded a Sewanee Walter Dakin Fellowship and a MacDowell Fellowship. She lives in San Francisco with a man, a dog, and a baby.