King the Wonder Dog: and Other Stories

by Eleanor Lerman

For readers who loved The Art of Racing in the Rain, a literary short story collection set in contemporary New York that surrounds a group of aging, lonely people who experience the unexpected healing power of pets.

Lost souls come in all forms—some walk on two legs, others on four.

Navigating loneliness and loss is a natural part of growing older, but it’s never easy. In King the Wonder Dog, this journey becomes more bearable for a group of men and women when their interactions with the dogs and cats that share their lives help them discover a deeper understanding of themselves.

A woman whose dog is stolen from her meets a surprising ally who helps get him back. An artist who survives a drive-by shooting is brought a mysterious trinket by the cat he saved from a lonely life. A man in a troubled marriage begins drawing a graphic novel starring his dog as his fierce protector, and it consoles him. 

A poignant collection filled with warmth, heart, and quiet moments of reflection, King the Wonder Dog explores the nuances of companionship, the beauty of second chances, and the ways we rescue each other when we least expect it. For anyone who has ever found comfort in the presence of a loyal pet, these stories are a reminder that love—no matter where it comes from—has the power to change everything.

232 pages, Paperback

Published April 7, 2026

About the author

Eleanor Lerman is a writer who lives in New York. Her first book of poetry, Armed Love (Wesleyan University Press, 1973), published when she was twenty-one, was nominated for a National Book Award. She has since published four other award-winning collections of poetry—Come the Sweet By and By (University of Massachusetts Press, 1975); The Mystery of Meteors (Sarabande Books, 2001); Our Post-Soviet History Unfolds (Sarabande Books, 2005); and The Sensual World Re-Emerges (Sarabande Books, 2010), along with The Blonde on the Train (Mayapple Press, 2009) a collection of short stories. She was awarded the 2006 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets and the Nation magazine for the year's most outstanding book of poetry for Our Post-Soviet History Unfolds and received a 2007 Poetry Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2011 she received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her first novel, Janet Planet, based on the life of Carlos Castaneda, was published by Mayapple Press in 2011. Her latest collection of poetry, Strange Life,was published by Mayapple in 2015. Since then, her novel, Radiomen (The Permanent Press, 2016) was awarded the John W. Campbell Prize for the Best Book of Science Fiction. Her next novel, The Stargazer's Embassy, was released in July 2017. Her most recent novel, Satellite Street, will be released in October 2019.

Reviews

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Eleanor Lerman since I read her novel Radiomen a couple of years ago. This is a book of short stories, definitely non-genre. But very much worth reading.

I'm about the same age as many of the protagonists of these quiet stories. They're thoughtful and poignant: people looking back on their lives in the past, looking around at their lives as they are now, thinking about what may be ahead. They all have animals in the stories, though the stories don't REALLY center around the animals.

Reading these stories left me feeling thoughtful and gently melancholy, but not in a bad way. It's like a look into quiet lives, seeing little vignettes of other peoples' stories. Not much happens, but it's all gentle and kinda lovely.

[Heather Lang · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️
A collection of short stories about aging and lonely people navigating life and loss in New York and discovering the healing power of pets.

This was a great collection of sweet stories with pets in them. These are not stories that focus solely on the animal for anyone expecting that. Instead, we have ourselves immersed in New York City neighbourhood, watching aging people rediscover life through periods of sickness, loss and loneliness. They are captivating stories that cover many different topics, but the love of their pet in center of the resolutions.