Lost Companions

"Many of us are devoted to the pets as well as the wild creatures that share the world with us. Their deaths can be wrenching, yet the culture we live in often trivializes our grief. With empathy and tenderness, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson writes of the innate dignity of other animals and the strength and beauty of our mutual bond - illuminating our right to love them, and mourn their leaving, as deeply as we want."
-Pulitzer Finalist Lydia Millet, author of Fight no More, Omnivores, and A Children's Bible

"A thoughtful examination of a heartbreaking thing that happens to many of us, the death of a beloved pet, Lost Companions is a beautiful book about a largely ignored subject, and will help many people."
-Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of The Hidden Lives of Dogs

"Losing a pet or other animal friend can be incredibly traumatic. This touching book is all about the bonds between humans and other species, and why we grieve their loss as much as we do."


-Frans de Waal, New York Times bestselling author of Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves

Publishers Weekly: "Anyone who's found it difficult to deal with the fact that pets' "lives are so much shorter" than humans' will appreciate this compassionate work."


Kirkus: "A touching, sensitive journey that will, like Masson's previous books, find a wide audience."

"VERDICT Highly recommended for all animal lovers who inevitably must deal with the death of their pets." - Library Journal [See Prepub Alert, 12/9/20.]

Publishers Weekly (full review)
Masson discusses people's close relationships with their pets through the lens of mortality in this moving and intimate study. Now 79, he reflects on a lifetime of pets, including his current one, yellow Labrador Benjy, who at 13 is already a year beyond the breed's average life expectancy, a realization Masson finds "unbearable." He also elicits stories from friends, which are moving and occasionally heartbreaking, dealing with cats and dogs, as well as less traditional pets, including turkeys and wombats. "Grief is grief," Masson writes, and though he's decidedly "not a great fan of psychology," he covers the stages of grief. Masson also tracks how humans' relationships with animals have changed over time (a "coevolution," he terms it) and suggests that dogs have "developed something unique in their ability to intuit our emotional states and to show empathy." Anyone who's found it difficult to deal with the fact that pets' "lives are so much shorter" than humans' will appreciate this compassionate work.


Publishers Weekly Reviewed on 03/27/2020 |


KIRKUS REVIEW (full review)

The acclaimed author of numerous books about the emotional lives of animals now turns to the experience of losing a pet.

"I believe it is a deep and ancient longing, to bond with a member of a different species," writes Masson near the beginning of this heart-rending foray into the challenge of "facing the death of...the animal you have come to love like any other member of the family." Nothing brings home the depth of that relationship like death, upon which we "are confronted with mortality in general, writ large in these animals who have become family, but in some sense even more than family-maybe part of ourselves." The author investigates the psychology of this loss through testimonies from their human companions as well as conversations with friends and veterinarians. Masson's tone is sympathetic, for he is a firm believer in the sentience of animals and the dignity with which they should be treated in life and death. He argues that animals have a sense of impending death and that death could be as relevant to them as it is to us. Dogs, in particular, bring an unalloyed state of pure happiness when they are in our presence, an elemental love free of all the baggage that accompanies human relationships. In many ways, that is why their loss is so heartbreaking. Occasionally, Masson's associations go too far-"losing [a pet] is very much like losing a child"-but readers can skip parts that seem over the edge. The author has many wise things to impart about a child's grief-e.g., "it is important to recognize the genuineness of the emotions of the child, to honor them by taking them seriously."


A touching, sensitive journey that will, like Masson's previous books, find a wide audience.

From Masson (What Animals Can Teach Us About the Origin of Good & Evil; Dogs Never Lie About Love) comes a heartfelt book about grieving for one's nonhuman family members. He affirms the need to mourn our pets as well as ways to help them in their final moments by offering stories that allow readers to explore their own responses and reactions to death and find ways to memorialize loved animals. After all, as the author says, "Grieving for an animal is what makes us human animals."VERDICT Highly recommended for all animal lovers who inevitably must deal with the death of their pets. [See Prepub Alert, 12/9/20.] - Library Journal