Laika's Window

"Sputnik 2 was a 'tipping point' for space exploration, but Laika’s treatment was undeniably cruel. The book is meant as a testament to her experience." — Scientific American

"There’s something here for readers with a wide range of interests, from space history buffs to humanities majors." — National Space Society

“Caswell celebrates humankind’s need to reach the stars and the little dog who helped make it possible.” — Booklist

"A powerful book about the first animal to orbit the earth. Caswell traces Laika’s short life in space, the speculation surrounding her death, the impact of her journey on human exploration, and the political implications of the experiment.” — BOMB Magazine

“Laika's Window is a compassionate exploration of the first animal to orbit the Earth, a little dog named Laika, who was deliberately sent to her death.” — Shelf Awareness

"A remarkable and haunting story....a moving tribute to the mutually beneficial bond between man and dog." — Publishers Weekly

Kurt Caswell’s detailed, deeply felt biography, Laika’s Window, covers not just the most famous dog of the century but also her context. Brevity "a wide-ranging book with the famous Laika at the center." — The Key Reporter, Phi Beta Kappa Society

"This book is a rich bricolage of fact and metanarrative... Caswell doesn’t let the reader off the hook with a simplistic and unknowing dog’s final view of the world. Rather, through this beautiful, thoughtful exploration of the 'Muttnick' refugee from Moscow’s cold streets and her journey to the edge of space, we’re offered an opportunity to take the measure of our own humanity." — Lone Star Literary

"Caswell, captures this mysterious, sad and haunting tale from the early days of the Space Age." — Oregon Public Radio

“Kurt Caswell’s empathetic history of the Soviet space dog Laika, the first animal to orbit Earth, is engaging, well researched, and provocative. Scientists gaze through the space capsule’s small window at the dog before liftoff; later the pioneering dog gazes through the same window, watching the planet Earth pass silently below. What is interspecies cooperation? the author asks. What does it mean to explore? Where are we headed?” — Barry Lopez, author of Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape

"Caswell positions Laika as an animal astronaut rather than a lab animal and showcases the bond between Laika and the Soviet space scientists, redefining the story of Laika and the space dogs, the pioneers of all our space endeavors.” — Chris Dubbs, author of Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle

"Brilliant, original, and heartbreaking, Laika’s Window takes us on a journey into the fascinating history of animals and humans in space travel and, beyond that, into the nature of our own loneliness as creatures, both here on earth and out in the vastness of the cosmos. Caswell’s tender consideration of Laika and her life is infectious, and I found myself just as invested in this little being that had been shot into space so many years ago. I won’t forget this powerful book, which brings us one step closer to making sense of our place in the universe.” — Taylor Larsen, author of Stranger, Father, Beloved

“Laika’s Window is a magnificent account of one of the world’s most famously tragic dogs. Combining meticulous scholarship of the Cold War era, profound sociopolitical analysis, unerring literary skill, and—the book’s great surprise—some of the most heartrending, haunting reflections ever written on the relations between canines and humans, Kurt Caswell’s masterwork shot an arrow through my dog-loving heart yet left me nothing but grateful for the experience. This is a mesmerizing tale by a writer as sensitive and heartful as he is brilliant.”— David James Duncan, author of The Brothers K and The River Why

“In the story of Laika the space dog, Kurt Caswell vividly shows how that famous flight was, in Muir’s words, ‘hitched to everything else in the universe,’ including the ethical treatment of animals, the Cold War, and the vastness of space exploration.” — David Gessner, author of All the Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West

“Poignant, lyrical, and sometimes heartbreaking, Laika’s Window excavates a vital moment in human history with equal parts compassion and intelligence. Caswell’s impressive research and deft prose make it impossible to resist falling head-over-heels for the affable and unwitting Mutnik who forever changed our place in the solar system.” — Kathryn Miles, author of Quakeland: On the Road to America’s Next Devastating Earthquake