In this original and provocative book, Colin Dayan tackles head-on the inexhaustible world, at once tender and fierce, of dogs and humans. We follow the tracks of dogs in the bayous of Louisiana, the streets of Istanbul, and the humane societies of the United States, and in the memories and myths of the humans who love them. Dayan reorients our ethical and political assumptions through a trans-species engagement that risks as much as it promises. She makes a powerful case for questioning what we think of as our deepest-held beliefs and, with dogs in the lead, unsettles the dubious promises of liberal humanism.

Moving seamlessly between memoir, case law, and film, Dayan takes politics and animal studies in a new direction—one that gives us glimpses of how we can think beyond ourselves and with other beings. Her unconventional perspective raises hard questions and renews what it means for any animal or human to live in the twenty-first century. Nothing less than a challenge for us to confront violence and suffering even in the privileged precincts of modernity, this searing and lyrical book calls for another way to think the world. Theoretically sophisticated yet aimed at a broad readership, With Dogs at the Edge of Life illuminates how dogs—and their struggles—take us beyond sentimentality and into a form of thought that can make a difference to our lives.

"Stimulating and lyrical... intellectually fierce reading for philosophically minded readers, especially dog lovers." - Kirkus Reviews

"Erudite and imaginative as the book asks why only members of our species get to be persons..." - Boston Review

"Emotionally and intellectually challenging, the volume boasts a rich, resonant message: Not everyone sees the dog the same." - American Kennel Club

"Dayan has thoroughly researched the events in the book. Her love of pit bulls and dogs in general shines through. She shows us what the true nature of the pitbull is and what some have become in the hands of the wrong type of people. To a dog lover, this is a very heartbreaking volume to read but it illustrates prejudice and the justification people use for their actions." - Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol 92, No 3

"With Dogs at the Edge of Life is filled with reports of this kind of senseless destruction of animal life, and for anyone who remotely cares about animals, it is a brutal, if necessary read. In each case, the question arises again and again: in what category do these animals exist?" - Los Angeles Review of Books

"To know life as the dogs know it, even if we can do so only incompletely, is to find, in Dayan's words, 'an anchor in the terror, a place to stand in the chaos.'" - Nashville Scene

"With Dogs at the Edge of Life was one of the most memorable books I've had the chance to read this year." - Inside Higher Ed

"Dayan’s book traces a spiritual itinerary that actively confounds our desire for hard data and certainty...It is a book aimed to make “enlightened” people uncomfortable." - Religion Dispatches