Starting with Max

The story of how a stray dog changed one woman's world and taught her the real meaning of life.

My dog has demonstrated a grand theory about life's simplest activities. He acts out the meaning of life by actively living it. Do not think so much about yourself, he tells me. Know where you're going, and just get up and go. Be playful and joyous.

Starting a new life in a new city, in a new country, Ying Ying and her family adopt a stray dog, the much loved Max. As changes in Ying Ying's life bring frustration and sadness as well as surprise and joy, quite unexpectedly she realises that what remains most constant in her life is her dog.

Starting with Max captures the journey of a migrant in mid-life crisis struggling to come to terms with her new identity in a foreign land. Ying Ying finds herself driven by her dog to pursue a life of action and meaning, persistence and determination. She must not just survive, but thrive and it is her faithful four-legged friend who has become her source of wisdom and strength at this most fragile period of her life.

This is not just another book about life with a dog, but a quest for deeper understanding of humans and their dogs. In her contemplation of her four-legged friend and all that he is, Ying Ying reflects on matters of significance such as love, faith, beauty, ageing, mortality and creation.

About the Author

Ying Ying was born to Chinese parents and grew up in Hong Kong. She gained her first degree from the University of Hong Kong in 1980 majoring in English Literature and Chinese Literature. After having worked for the Hong Kong government educating the public against corruption, she completed a Masters course in Criminology. She taught Sociology and Criminal Justice at universities in Hong Kong before she and her family migrated to Australia in 1999. Ying Ying has written two books in Chinese, published in 1992 and 2009 in Hong Kong. Starting with Max is her first book in English. She lives in Sydney with her German husband and grown-up daughter.