The Dog Year - by Ann Wertz Garvin (Paperback)

About the Book

"Dr. Lucy Peterman was not built for a messy life. A well-respected surgeon whose patients rely on her warmth, compassion, and fierce support, Lucy has always worked hard and trusted in the system. She's not the sort of person who ends up in a twelve-step program after being caught stealing supplies from her hospital. But that was Lucy before the accident-before her husband and unborn baby were ripped away from her in an instant, before her future felt like a broken promise. Caught red-handed in a senseless act that kept her demons at bay, she's faced with a choice: get some help or lose her medical license. Now she's reluctantly sharing her deepest fears with a bunch of strangers, avoiding her loneliness by befriending a troubled girl, pinning her hopes on her husband's last gift, and getting involved with a rugged cop from her past. It's only when she is adopted by a stray mutt and moves her group to the dog park that she begins to truly bond with the ragtag dog-loving addicts-and discovers that a chaotic, unplanned life might be the sweetest of all. "--

Book Synopsis

Dr. Lucy Peterman was not built for a messy life. A well-respected surgeon whose patients rely on her warmth, compassion, and fierce support, Lucy has always worked hard and trusted in the system. She's not the sort of person who ends up in a twelve-step program after being caught stealing supplies from her hospital.

But that was Lucy before the accident--before her husband and unborn baby were ripped away from her in an instant, before her future felt like a broken promise. Caught red-handed in a senseless act that kept her demons at bay, she's faced with a choice: get some help or lose her medical license.

Now she's reluctantly sharing her deepest fears with a bunch of strangers, avoiding her loneliness by befriending a troubled girl, pinning her hopes on her husband's last gift, and getting involved with a rugged cop from her past. It's only when she is adopted by a stray mutt and moves her group to the dog park that she begins to truly bond with the ragtag dog-loving addicts--and discovers that a chaotic, unplanned life might be the sweetest of all . . .

Review Quotes

Praise for The Dog Year

"The story of a woman who had everything, lost everything, and now wants to shoplift the rest."--Jacquelyn Mitchard, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean"Few authors are funnier or more sympathetic than Ann Garvin, and few heroines [are] more in need of comic relief and sympathy than Dr. Lucy Peterman. The Dog Year is a kind, gentle, honest look at a woman whose life has come apart and a survivor who puts it all back together."--Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author of author of A Land More Kind than Home and This Dark Road to Mercy"Hilarious, insightful, and heartbreaking... A deeply intimate story of tragedy and recovery that readers and book clubs will treasure."--Matt Bondurant, author of The Night Swimmer and The Wettest County in the World

Praise for Ann Garvin and On Maggie's Watch

"Compelling . . . A perfect fit for suburban reading groups."--Booklist

"On Maggie's Watch shows how we thrive, how we go on, in a life that's neither perfect nor fair. [Garvin] writes with humor and compassion so well; just when I'd feel about to cry the scene would twist and I'd laugh out loud. She has such a deep understanding for her flawed and trying-to-get better characters; she obviously loves them, and so do we."--Luanne Rice, New York Times bestselling author of Little Night

About the Author

Ann Garvin worked as a registered nurse while finishing her doctorate in exercise psychology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She is a professor of health and nutrition at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater. Additionally, she teaches creative writing in the Masters of Fine Arts program at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, New Hampshire. She is the author of one previous novel, On Maggie's Watch. She lives in Wisconsin.