If you are an animal lover, UNSAID is a great book for you. No, it's not great literature. But it's a great novel about animals and their people. The best word I can think of to describe it is "sweet."

The narrator of the story is a dead veterinarian, Helena. The main character is her devastated husband, David. She also left behind a household full of animals, both inside and outside.

David is a lawyer. A little more than halfway through the book David takes on a case unlike any other he has defended before. Helena's dear friend Jaycee, another veterinarian, may go to jail because she tried to kidnap a chimpanzee, Cindy, that belonged to the government.

Jaycee had been in charge of an attempt to teach Cindy to communicate by sign language. Jaycee raised Cindy for four years, from the time she was an infant. But now the government wants to put her back in the general population, where she may be subjected to experiments and torture. According to the government, this communication experiment with Cindy has failed; according to Jaycee, it hasn't.

According to the author, Neil Abramson, there's a difference between unspoken and unsaid. And that is one of David's defenses.

My only criticism of this book is that Abramson doesn't make clear whether Cindy's communication abilities are ever publicized. It would be nice to think so.