This memoir made the New York Times best-seller list and is on the Garden and Gun magazine list of the best books of the year. The author, Rick Bragg, won a Pulitzer Prize as a reporter before becoming a compelling author of books that portray life in the Northeast Alabama hills. Speck is an ill-behaved mongrel dog that somehow arrived at Rick Bragg’s home at a time when he was despondent over his own health issues and needed Speck as much as Speck needed him. “Bragg has done it again, focusing his lyrical prose on one aspect of his Southern roots while managing to embrace much larger terrain in the process . . . [The Speckled Beauty] delights the senses and is as honest as the day is long.” —David Holahan. “I knew from the beginning that I would love The Speckled Beauty, but I did not realize just how much. Once I began this memoir, I did not want to put it down. Though Speck is the center of the story, Bragg’s compassionate portraits of his family members made me love them all. As the family grows and changes, so too does Speck, and Bragg creates a profoundly moving tableau.” —Ashley Riggleson.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2021. 256 pages. Hardback in dust jacket.