Carolyn Parkhurst - The Dogs of Babel

Thank you to my wonderful editor, Asya Muchnick, and to everyone at Little, Brown, especially Alison Vandenberg, Heather Rizzo, Michael Pietsch, Laura Quinn, and Sophie Cottrell.

Thank you to all the great teachers I’ve had, especially Kermit Moyer, Richard McCann, Matthew Klam, Roberta Rubenstein, Ann duCille, Annie Dillard, Mary Manson, Susan King, Judith Robbins, and Stephen Snow.

Thank you to Barbara Fuegner for talking to me about dogs and to Annie Hallatt for talking to me about masks.

Thank you to my son, Henry, whose impending birth provided me with the deadline I needed to finish this book and whose happy face reminds me daily of what really matters. And thank you, above all, to my husband, Evan, who has supported me in every way and who has provided the invaluable service of making me happy.

Finally, though they will not read this, I would like to thank all of the dogs who have let me share their lives, especially Chelsea, who was such a good puppy dog it’s hard for the layman to understand.

Carolyn Parkhurst holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from American University. She has published fiction in the North American Review, the Minnesota Review, Hawai‘i Review, and the Crescent Review. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and their son.

Copyright © 2003 by Carolyn Parkhurst

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

First Edition

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Song lyrics from “Mrs. Robinson,” © 1968, written by Paul Simon; song lyrics from “It’s A Small World,” from Disneyland and Walt Disney World’s “It’s A Small World,” © 1963, written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman; song lyrics from “A Day in the Life,” © 1967 Northern Songs, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney; song lyrics from “I Got You Babe,” © 1965, written by Sonny Bono.

Little Brown And Company

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10017

Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroup.com.

First eBook Edition: June 2003

ISBN: 978-0-7595-2806-2