Disaster-prone writer and reluctant dog rescuer Ken Foster finds himself adopting an ever-growing collection of stray dogs, from a beagle abandoned in a New York City dog run to a pit bull in a Mississippi truck stop. Their circumstances offer a grounding counterpoint to his own misfortunes: the shock of New York City after 9/11, the evacuation of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and the day his heart nearly stopped for good.

Ken Foster is the editor of two anthologies, including Dog Culture. His collection of short stories, The Kind I’m Likely to Get, was a New York Times Notable Book. His work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the San Francisco Chronicle, McSweeney’s, and the Believer.