Hello. I'm Catherine Weller and this is the Open Book.

This week's selection is The Good Good Pig by Sy Montgomery.

Question: how long does a domestic pig live? Answer: about six months. This isn't a joke but a genuine question that Sy Montgomery's neighbors asked her nearly as often as she pondered the question herself. The answer presumes said domestic pig will be slaughtered, a safe assumption. Safe that is, until Ms Montgomery found herself the proud adoptive parent of the runtiest of runts. She named him Christopher Hogwood, and then all bets were off.

Christopher wasn't just a runt; he was sickly too. When he joined Sy Montgomery's interspecies family, it was doubtful he'd live for very long. But live he did, and eventually he grew and grew and grew. Montgomery found herself seeking facts about an animal with an expected life span of less than a year. It's worth noting here that the people who were asking her how long the pig would live and how large it would get were rural New Englanders, some of them farmers. Facing a paucity of information, she finally discovered wild pigs live about ten years. There was no telling how big Christopher would get.

It was also impossible to predict how charismatic Christopher Hogwood would become. Pigs are intelligent, sensitive creatures. Christopher had those characteristics in spades. He also had a tendency to wander, and Montgomery's neighbors had ample opportunity to get to know Christopher. He made several appearances in the local newspaper's police blotter after the fire department was dispatched to remove him from somebody's lawn or garden. He also made several friends. He was patient with people, especially children, and loved their attentions. And people loved him, after all, nobody had seen a 700 pound pig slathered in aloe vera lotion before.

By now this tale has probably brought to mind other books and writers. It is also most likely that many listeners' schmaltz alarms have been ringing. Yes, the book is a gentle book about animals in the vein of James Herriot. Like Herriot, Montgomery is sentimental without being schmaltzy. She does not anthropomorphise Christopher Hogwood, nor does she skip messy issues like sickness, death and the need to eat. What she does is what she's done successfully in her previous books Journey of the Pink Dolphins and Spell of the Tiger: create a work informed by science and research -- but not clinical -- that explores the relationships between humans and animals. The Good Good Pig is like a nonfiction Charlotte's Web and for that reason it's an excellent pick for adult animal lovers, those seeking a gentle read, or as a read aloud book for the whole family.

You've been listening to the open book on KCPW. I'm Catherine Weller.

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