How does a person of faith go on living after tragedy strikes? That's the question the recently widowed, burned-out, 43-year-old Mary Fassler faces in The Dog That Talked to God by Jim Kraus (The Silence). Disillusioned by the platitudes offered by well-meaning friends and family in an effort to ease her inconsolable grief, Mary--shaken, lost and confused--decides to adopt a Schnauzer puppy named Rufus in the hope he will offer her companionship. During their daily walks through the suburbs of Chicago, Mary talks to Rufus, railing against a God from whom she feels estranged and abandoned, while trying to make sense of a past she can't let go of and the prospect of a lonely, uncertain future. One day, Rufus unexpectedly talks back to Mary and informs her that he is in regular communication with The Almighty. When he begins to relay messages from God, Mary begins to pine less and listen more.
Rufus becomes the impetus for Mary to reconcile her life. Kraus's dog-savior scenario feels plausible because of Rufus's quirky, gentle soul, while Mary's philosophical, humorous and refreshingly honest narrative buoys an otherwise heartbreaking predicament. As Mary interacts with family, friends and new love interests, her unwitting spiritual recovery propels her to set off with Rufus on a pilgrimage in search of a new life. Kraus's novel is an entertaining, deeply engrossing portrait of what it means to be fully human and fully alive. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines