“Is there a more beguiling writer today than Eric Kraft?” —Publishers Weekly

Ella Leroy dreams of escaping the dreary routine of her 1950s wife-and-mom life. Without telling her husband, she enlists her son Peter and his locally-notorious girlfriend Patti in a scheme: to buy a run-down clamboatand re-invent it as an elegant cruising vessel for summer people in the beach town of Babbington, Long Island.But after the Arcinella is purchased, Peter discovers thatit is slowly sinking. Each night he sneaks from his home to the harborfront of Bolotomy Bay, where he pumps the boat dry, inflating his mother’s hopes a bit longer.

Inflating a Dog offers proof of the genius of an author whose work Newsweek has called “the literary equivalent of Fred Astaire dancing: great art that looks like fun.”