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Virago has scooped New Yorker writer and animal behavioural science student Anna Heyward's "extraordinary" memoir about learning to see the world through a dog’s eyes.
Editorial director Rose Tomaszewska bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Emma Paterson at Aitken Alexander on behalf of the Cheney Agency in New York, in a deal with Vanessa Radnidge at Hachette Australia. Robin Desser, senior editor and vice-president at Random House, will publish in the US and the book has also sold in China and Germany. Publication of Living with Freddie is planned for spring 2024.
When Heyward adopted a rescued Italian greyhound, “she was full of enthusiasm to bring a dog into her life,“ Virago said. ”But Freddie, she quickly realised, had severe separation anxiety, unable to be left alone for even seconds without biting his own tail or scratching at his body.
“While some would have given the dog back, Anna transformed her life. She took Freddie to work and hid him from her boss. Her social life withered. Her relationship with her fiancé began to flounder. She dedicated her life to entering the mind of her dog. And she changed. As Anna observed Freddie's behaviour, she began to experience the world as he did: the quality of light, the timbre of sound; a leaf falling from a tree.”
With her degree in animal behavioural science and new “surprising” research, Heyward began to unpick a distorted history and see the world through a dog’s eyes for this “extraordinary” book.
Heyward said: “Rose Tomaszewska’s careful reading and heartfelt response to my work was unique. I am thrilled to become a Virago author, and work with the whole team at Virago to bring Freddie’s story to UK and Commonwealth readers.”
Rose Tomaszewska, said: “Living with Freddie is a disarming, stunning read which, in its unassuming and tender storytelling, makes you question how we see the world and the animals with whom we share it. I was struck by her brilliant writing in 'Bad Dog' when I read it in the New Yorker and eager to meet its author as soon as Living with Freddie landed in my inbox. Anna’s thoughtful perspective and exciting ideas left me even more determined to make her a Virago author and position her memoir with ambition alongside Lab Girl and H is for Hawk.”
Heyward works on the editorial staff of the New Yorker, and as an editorial and special projects consultant at the Gagosian art gallery. She is a graduate student in animal behaviour and welfare science at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. Her writing has also been published by the New York Times, New York Times Book Review, T Magazine, the Paris Review and Vogue, among others. She was born in Melbourne and lives in New York.