THE OCTOPUS HAS THREE HEARTS

A debut collection of short stories that embraces the strange and unexpected and explores the outer limits of empathy and forgiveness, through the curious, universal redemption of the human-animal bond.

Roxanne seems terribly lonely: Her husband Earl has passed away, and her daughter Linda was murdered. But Earl and Linda are still keeping Roxanne company, reincarnated in the forms of a wiener dog and standard poodle. This relationship not idyllic, but relatively harmonious is disrupted when Roxanne accidentally hits a pit bull with her car. About to have the dog put down, she recognizes the eyes of her daughter's killer, Helmut. Should she choose retribution, or forgiveness?

This is the transporting scenario in ‘You're Home Now,' the opening story in The Octopus Has Three Hearts . From a goat farmer to a suburban adulterer, a violent child to a polyamorous marine biologist, Rose's diverse characters have little in common except a life sustaining connection to the animal world. The octopus, dogs, pigs, chameleons, bats, parrots, rats and sugar gliders extend a measure of compassion and solace that their human communities lack.

RACHEL ROSE is the author of four collections of poetry and a memoir, The Dog Lover Unit: Lessons in Courage from the World's K9 Cops, which was shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis award for best non-fiction crime book. She has won poetry, fiction, and non-fiction awards, including the Bronwen Wallace Award, the Pat Lowther Award and the Pushcart Prize. She is the Poet Laureate Emerita of Vancouver.