I picked this book up two days after the loss of my 15-year-old beagle, and I am so glad I didn’t put it right down. The first story alone – about the love of a dog for her person – made the book more than worth the time. I was her person, and now I truly understand the depth of her devotion. As a full-fledged imaginer, I think all the time about what animals, birds, and bugs even think as they navigate the same world we do. These stories brought my vague notions alive. What do migrating birds think about on long, solitary flights compelled only by instincts? Why does that wasp continue to dig and tunnel and finally surface to a life that is fraught from the beginning? The scientific among us may scoff at these stories. Anyone who has owned a beagle knows they are true.
Only a Little While Here by María Ospina, (List Price: $28, Scribner, 9781668097083, March 2026)
Reviewed by Doloris Vest, Book No Further in Roanoke, VA