REBECCA FRANKEL
Author, Editor, Journalist
Coming May 18, 2027
A Home
for Dyngo
My Life with a Retired War Dog
"Ever since Odysseus came home and found that no one recognized him but his dog, we've recognized the important emotional work that animals can play in homecoming. But in Rebecca Frankel's A Home for Dyngo, the returning veteran is a dog, a bomb-sniffing member of a K-9 unit with three deployments under his belt, and her story of adopting him and helping him come home from war is powerful and moving."
—Phil Klay, author of Redeployment and winner of the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction
"Rebecca Frankel understands the truth about loving dogs: we give them everything, but they give us back so much more—especially "difficult" dogs like Dyngo, whose experiences in war left him struggling to fit into a normal home. Deeply felt. Beautifully written. Move over Marley: Dyngo will bound his way into your heart, one disaster at a time."
—Bret Witter, 9-time NYT bestselling co-writer of Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever who Saved Him
Now available for Pre-Order
In this unforgettable memoir, Rebecca Frankel—NYT bestselling author of War Dogs—stumbles into a journey of love and self-discovery after adopting a retired war dog of her own.
Of all the dogs Rebecca Frankel met in her years reporting on military K9s, Dyngo was her favorite. When Dyngo retires, his handlers extend a rare civilian request: Will Rebecca take Dyngo?
Thrilled, she says yes, and uproots her tranquil, 30-something, single life for the ten-year-old Belgian Malinois who saved countless lives in Afghanistan.
But five-foot-tall Frankel quickly realizes that living with the 80-pound, bite-trained war dog with a reputation for “being a handful” is not going to be easy. Dyngo, who thrived under RPG blasts and sniper fire, doesn’t want comfy dog beds or walks in the park. He wants to keep hunting for bombs. He whines, he paces, he upends furniture.
Unnerved but determined, Frankel resolves to give Dyngo the happy civilian life he deserves. But before she can be the person her dog needs, she has to face her own insecurities about what she can never become: a dog handler who’s been to war. With riveting scenes from Dyngo’s combat tours, Frankel delivers an emotional investigation of their past lives as she and Dyngo begin a new one together, forging their own unbreakable bond.
Honest and funny, heart-wrenching and real, A Home for Dyngo is a love story, and a singular account of an overlooked part of every war hero’s journey: life beyond the military. As Frankel and Dyngo discover, sometimes life’s greatest adventures start at home.
