“Dog Person” is Camille Pagán’s ultimate love story. It’s a story about all kinds of love, and maybe, most of all, it’s a love story about the love we feel for our dogs and what they bring to our lives. But it’s not “just” a dog story (funny thing, when I was typing this review, without thinking, I wrote “Dog Story” as the title). This lovely, heartwarming, heartbreaking, beautifully conceived novel is about love in all its permutations; a mother’s love, our love for our animal companions, our love for our partner, our love for our parents (or not), our love for our friends and family, and our love of reading and finding safe spaces in which to read.

Harold is the first person narrator, and he’s a dog who has lived a long, full life. It’s through his tired, rheumy eyes that we see Miguel, the guy who was co-owner of the Lakeside Bookstore with his partner, the love of his life, who recently died. Miguel isn’t doing well; both he and Harold are bereft after losing their Amelia May, who was a prolific writer of romance novels as well as an incredibly wonderful human being. She rescued Harold from a shelter after he spent his first year of life living in a crate in a basement. Needless to say, Harold’s life with Amelia May and Miguel was nothing short of magnificent. Harold was much loved by Amelia May and lay by her side as she wrote and spent time in the bookstore with both Amelia and Miguel when they worked there.

Pagán also creates a community within the bookstore that Miguel and Amelia cherished. Those who work there are passionate about books and about their bookstore. So when Miguel isolates himself after Amelia’s death, they do their best to keep the bookstore afloat. While the booksellers have great ideas about how to expand the business, including selling ebooks, Miguel is resistant to change. An event that might just help the struggling bookstore stay in business is when Miguel’s favorite author, Jonathan Middleton-Biggs offers to do an event at Lakeside Books. After years of Miguel trying to get JMB, as his favorite author is known, to come to the store, JMB’s assistant finally reaches out with the offer. The event might be a huge win for the bookstore, drawing in people from across the area, with special VIP tickets for those who want to talk to the author in a small group after the main event.

So when JMB doesn’t show, the patrons are angry, and the bookstore is out the money for the catered event. Miguel is shocked and angry. If they have to repay the ticket holders, their demise will be hastened. JMB’s assistant, Fiona, simply says that he has disappeared and she doesn’t know where he is. Miguel is determined to track JMB down and demand that he honor his commitment and pick another date to appear at the bookstore.

With the help of one of the booksellers, Dane, they find an address in Chicago and drive there, with Harold, to confront the missing author. There they find Fiona, the author’s assistant and sister. Additionally, they meet her daughter, who, to the consternation of both Miguel and Harold,is named Amelia Mae. Hearing her name brings back the horrible sadness of their loss, but like their Amelia May, the young Amelia Mae loves dogs, and she falls completely in love with Harold. How can any dog, especially Harold, who has been so lonely for someone to adore him, resist?

Because this is a story about love, we know there will be a happy ending. But we don’t read novels because of endings. We read them because of the journey they take us on, and our journey alongside Harold is one that has us, at different points, smiling, crying, and hopeful. His narration is unique as Pagán doesn’t try to write as we might imagine a dog would think. Harold is perfectly literate, although he admits to his chagrin that he can’t read. His outlook on life and his wisdom are almost completely due to Amelia’s love and her ability to talk to him about everything.

And while Miguel has been expert at keeping people at arm’s length for the past year, with Fiona he begins to open up. Harold comments, “Good questions are how you make friends; good listening is how you keep them.” That’s what Amelia May had told him, and it’s a trueism that’s worth thinking about.

There’s a lot of wisdom in this touching novel. One of my favorite literary characters, Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache, has four rules which are very wise. Amelia May channels the inspector when she informs Miguel that “the four most endearing words in the English language are ‘I need your help.'” She says that people need to feel useful and valued, and by asking for help, we fulfill that desire.

But as beautiful as this story is, and it is one that I will be rereading over and over again, be prepared to cry. Just as Harold cries over his beautiful Amelia May. The exquisitely emotional writing will deeply affect those who love and have lost people and animals. So much of Harold’s wisdom is like a window into our souls. He tells us at one point, when he’s crying tears, that “it feels like happiness and sadness and remembering, all mixed together…it’s the kind of feeling you can have only after you’ve loved so much that you know in your bones that moving on will never, ever be the same thing as letting go.”

The ending, of course, is a minimum three-tissue read. Harold is an old, sick dog. We know how it’s going to end, but that doesn’t mean that such foreknowledge makes the (fictional) reality of it any easier. But in spite of the loss which runs through the story, what overshadows the sadness is the idea that we journey on, we honor those we have loved by finding new love, by rejoicing in life. And by doing so, we are not forgetting those who we have loved. We are cherishing that love by continuing to love.

I can’t imagine that other readers won’t love this book as much as I do. It’s beautiful, unique, and unforgettable. In a Thursday evening event in Chicago at The Book Cellar, Camille Pagán shared that she cried throughout the writing of this book. Through every rewrite. This story came from a place of deep loss and writing this book helped her heal. And alongside her, all the time, was her dog. Her sweet dog was by her side, nudging her and leaning against her and comforting her. And while she loves her three cats, she knows that dogs steal a special part of our hearts.

This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.

Note: featured in the photo is my dog Lexi with foster dog Baxter.