Two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning science writer Jon Franklin became fascinated with the bond between humans and dogs after hearing of a man and puppy exhumed from a 12,000-year-old grave. Over the next decade Franklin became so engaged with his research that he married a dog lover and was sharing his home with a clever standard poodle named Charlie. Building on evolutionary science, archaeology, behavioral science, and the experience of watching his own dog evolve from puppy to family member, Franklin argues audaciously and convincingly that man and dog are more than just companions; they are part and parcel of the same creature, having mutually evolved to rely upon each other. "Read this book and it will change the way you see dogs, and people. Jon Franklin, the dean of science writers, is doing more than reporting here; he is making an argument, a surprising and learned one, about the evolution of modern society. It is a story of deep co-dependence, a theory informed by science, by love, and by a ripening personal appreciation of mutual need. And, oh yes, it may make you want to get a standard poodle."—Mark Bowden
"The result of his obsession with discovering the root of the human-dog relationship is this impossible-to-put-down book, a peregrination through the personal, the historical, the ethological, anthropological, and ecological as Franklin discovers how dogs and humans changed each other in the thousands of years they've been together."—Booklist (starred review)
"Among a plethora of books on breeding, disciplining, loving and lamenting the loss of man's best friend, this thoughtful discourse is a best of breed."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
