Bruce begins his life as the runt of the litter, unwanted and unloved, until he catches the eye of the family's matriarch and earns his place as a beloved companion. But the Great War intervenes. Britain needs messenger dogs, and Bruce finds himself in the trenches of France, where his intelligence and devotion become matters of life and death. Through shellfire and mustard gas, he carries communications that save soldiers' lives, until a wound sends him homeward. What returns is not just a dog, but a hero wearing the quiet dignity of everything he endured. Terhune, who knew dogs intimately as a breeder, writes with an animal-lover's intuition about what moves behind those liquid eyes. The novel captures both the tender domesticity of early twentieth-century family life and the brutal necessity of war, held together by one dog's refusal to abandon those he loves.
X-Ray
