Epiphany: Stories, Essays, and Meditations on Animals — Paulette Callen

For millennia, animals have been at our sides -- as our companions, our workmates, and at the heart of the folk tales told by our early ancestors. In modern times, the emotional bond between humans and animals has frequently gone beyond interdependence: animals have become our most trusted friends.

Veteran author Paulette Callen celebrates that special role animals play in our lives in a new collection of stories, essays, and meditations titled simply, Epiphany.

Dogs, cats, horses, and a mouse, a wolf, a grizzly, and even a whale star in these stories, ranging in style and tone from the mystical to the personal, from funny vignettes to unsentimental explorations of why all these creatures belong in the fabric of life on our little planet. Callen shows how by making the effort to know these animals, we gain a deeper sense of our place as humans in this earthly tapestry.

Sure to appeal to anyone who has ever loved or tried to communicate with the creatures around us, Epiphany is an ode to what connects us all. Reading this collection, you just might experience an epiphany of your own and realize that we needn't look to the stars to know we are not alone in the cosmos.