In What We Fed to the Manticore, Talia Lakshmi Kolluri uses short stories to explore humans' relationships with various animals, both wild and domestic. Through domestication, people have artificially selected for traits in animals or plants that are useful or appealing to them, creating species that are genetically distinct from their wild cousins. This process has played a key role in humanity's history; without the development of agriculture made possible by domestication, our modern society could not exist.

In her nine short stories, only one species is a repeat narrator—the dog. Dogs have certainly earned the nickname "man's best friend." Descended from wolves, many believe they were the very first animals to be domesticated, though scientists debate exactly when the process started and how long it took. Based on studies of genetics, it most likely began in northern Eurasia at some point up to 20,000 years ago. With the domestication of dogs beginning so long ago, it's ...