by Anita Diamant

Beginning in 1814 at a funeral, THE LAST DAYS OF DOGTOWN is a portrait of a downtrodden Massachusetts town over the course of a decade. Populated by a large cast of sympathetic and colorful characters, the story follows their lives as they strive, fail, occasionally triumph, and often suffer. The focus of the story is the sad romance, thwarted by racism, between Judy Rhines, who is white, and Cornelius Finson, who is a free black man. Fittingly, the inhabitants of Dogtown include a population of dogs, some of whom contribute to the story.