Publication Date: December 2, 2021
Lizzy has largely retreated from the world: she tends her adopted strays and goes to work, but she has forsaken lifelong pastimes and declines invitations from old friends. On the day she buries Happy, the abandoned basset hound she adopted years before, she learns a real estate developer is threatening the heart of her rural community-a tranquil pond and a relict stand of hemlocks. For Lizzy this is a magical place, hidden from the modern world.
Coaxed by an old friend to join a group fighting the development, Lizzy is reluctant-she wants to avoid both hope and him. But she realizes she can no longer keep the outside world at bay. As the battle over the development unfolds, Lizzy opens herself to two young neighbors who share her love of the natural environment-an awkward sixteen-year-old and an inquisitive ten-year-old. And as Happy’s elements return to the earth, Lizzy experiences her own transformation as buried memories find their way to the surface in increasingly curious ways.
How To Bury Your Dog by Eva Silverfine opens with the heartbreak with which the title eludes.
Lizzy is pretty reclusive on her property amongst nature, surrounded by her family of pets. Happy was a dog she shared with her husband, but he will soon only be part of her story, as will her tragically ended marriage.
She once shared her home and the beautiful property along Bartons Mill Pond with her husband. Now, she enjoys the solitude and the occasional wonder of two local young boys who stop to chat as they head to the pond for fishing.
But a landowner who wants to begin developing new homes threatens all of this. Some neighbors are enticed by the idea that they could sell some of their large pieces of property for a good profit. Lizzy does not want to get involved, but she becomes drawn into sharing the natural beauty of the land and all they risk losing, especially the youngest generation.
What makes this story different from the typical tale of developments crowding out family land is that Lizzy involves the young boys to demonstrate all they observe and learn from Bartons Mill Pond. Lizzy sees that her neighbors are as vital to her as the wonders of nature surrounding her.
Deep within the earth and each heart, sorrow is buried, and a new beauty emerges in How To Bury Your Dog. 
From living above her parents’ hardware store in Brooklyn to living down a mile down a gravel road in Central Texas, Eva Silverfine has meandered through urban to rural landscapes. A biologist by training, she works as a freelance copyeditor for several academic presses. Her short fiction has appeared in a variety of journals, and her novels, How to Bury Your Dog and Ephemeral Wings, were recently published by Black Rose Writing.
