A beagle who has never had words. A family who says everything in front of her. And eleven years of love, mischief and memory, told from the cool floor tiles of a Mumbai flat.

Simba is a beagle. Female, opinionated, British by clan and Indian by address, and the only member of her household nobody ever thinks is listening. That is her great strategic advantage. People say things in front of a dog they would not say in front of a lamp, and Simba has been in the room for all of it.

A Beagle's Faith in Reruns gathers nine linked stories, told in her voice. They follow Simba from a thirty-day-old puppy who bites the right shoelace to an old dog who knows every sound in the house by heart. Along the way she watches her family the way only a dog can:

Ma, who runs the kitchen, the house and, quietly, everyone in it.
Pa, who lets his tea go cold every evening while he talks about two Labradors who died long before Simba was born.
Sis, careful and exact, who has never once left her side.
Sid, the Boy, who steals her snacks, comments on her weight, and one day leaves with a Big Bag that does not come back.
Inside you will find:

What Mom Means to Me: a puppy loses one mother and slowly discovers another.
The Master Chef Home: a beagle with new teeth eats her way through underwear, books and furniture, until Pa starts cooking.
Simba's Dream of the Desert House: a dream of a green lawn in the Rajasthan desert, where a clever dog and a foolish one argue about a stolen mango.
Smells Like Him Thinking: the Boy faces a choice between the easy hard thing and the hard easy thing, and Simba learns what it means to wait by a door.
Walking with My Ancestors: the legends of Sheeba and Blacky, a scorpion, a jungle cat and a gate, and the discovery that love can have a line in it.
The Cold File: Sis brings home a secret that smells of old paper and fear, and Simba keeps watch through a Ganpati festival.
Paradise on Earth: an old beagle, a red gym bag and a surprise weekend with grass, birds and a plate made just for her.
My Worst Nightmare Comes True: a trip to the vet, a cone like a lampshade with a grudge, and an unexpected new waist.
The Days and Nights Grow Longer: tea, biscuits, guitar songs, Holi colours and the long, gentle wait for the Boy to come home.
Funny, tender and quietly wise, these stories are about the things a family never says out loud, and the one member who hears them anyway. Simba counts time in walks, not days. She judges people by their ankles. She considers cats an insult and curd a sacrament. And she believes, with her whole nose, that the good things always come round again.

Illustrated throughout, A Beagle's Faith in Reruns is for anyone who has ever been loved by a dog, missed someone who moved far away, or sat on a balcony at dusk while the light turned the colour of weak tea.

Perfect for dog lovers, readers of gentle literary fiction and family stories, and fans of animal narrators in the tradition of The Art of Racing in the Rain and Flush.