Only Buechner could have pulled this out: a novelization of the apocriphal book of Tobit. He does pull it off, the story is great, and it has a dog in it (and a monster fish too). I laughed, then cried, then read the original. It's really all there!
Quotes:
I AM RAPHAEL, ONE OF THE SEVEN ARCHANGELS WHO PASS IN and out of the presence of the Holy One, blessed be he. I bring him the prayers of all who pray and of those who don’t even know that they’re praying.
How can I put into the language of men what the dog had seen when he had taken his look? A forked fire? A gathering of light that is always moving and always still? A pair of wings such as a dream might wear if the dream were a bird? Something like that anyway, or nothing at all like that. He saw the prayer carrier anyway. He saw Raphael.
The dog saw instantly through my disguise. He flattened himself out on his front paws with his chest on the ground and his neck arched upward so he could see into my eyes. What I saw in his was as gracious a prayer as any I have ever set down at the feet of Glory. He asked nothing for himself or for any of his four-footed kind but only that all should be well with his master.
What they saw of me was about as much as a child’s hand can hold of the sea, but it was enough. A fire burned before them like no other fire. A fragrance fresher than the roses of Sharon filled the air, and the leaves of the trees tossed like plumes though there was no wind stirring. There was the sound of as many voices singing as there are stars in the sky. There was a silence deeper than the deepest well. Their wonder was so great that they both hid their faces in their hands. Even the dog placed his paws over his eyes. “Don’t be afraid,” I told them, and when finally they took their hands from their faces, I was gone.
If was the hinge that the fate of the whole world hung on.
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