Living with Freddie

“[Heyward] is a sure-footed writer . . . She dispenses diverting facts . . . summarizes key figures and discoveries in the history of behaviorism; and beautifully describes a moment when Freddie chased deer into a forest and seemed to fully, confidently inhabit himself . . . Part of her ultimate point is that when it comes to animals, we’re at best highly suspect narrators and can even unwittingly become antiheroes. What she learned about pets could be applied to any ostensibly loving relationship, including those between humans.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Part memoir, part animal science, Living with Freddie joins such triumphs as My Dog Tulip that seem to be about dogs but manage to be deep, incisive, and sometimes heartbreaking portraits of the people who are devoted to them. Heyward writes with great clarity, heart, and frankness about her struggles with a difficult dog, about the idea of behavior itself, and, most of all, about the nature of love.”—Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief

“Compelling, vivid, and essential, Living with Freddie confronts the mystery of love, the nature of suffering, and the heartbreaking ways in which one may be inadvertently embedded in the other. This book should be required reading for anyone contemplating adopting a pet, or even raising a child. Please read these pages. You will come away changed.”—Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus

“A beautiful book—at once a touching memoir about loving a ‘difficult’ dog and a searching inquiry into what it is to be sentient, alive, and in hierarchical relation with other sentient living beings . . . Anna Heyward zooms in and out between the everyday and the cosmic with dizzying and delightful ease, leaving the reader feeling enlarged and enlightened.”—Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot and Either/Or

“In this extraordinary, beautifully written book, Anna Heyward places the science and history of our relationship with dogs within a deeply personal story about the joy and the pain of living with, and trying to relate to, a nonhuman animal. Living with Freddie is a stunning meditation on the bond between beasts and humans.”—Marc Bekoff, PhD, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals

“Anna Heyward writes with sublime curiosity, uncommon lucidity, and an open heart—about her dog Freddie, yes, but also about love, natural selection, and humans’ relationship with the nonhuman world. I sobbed through the final few chapters, but I couldn’t put it down. Living with Freddie is an incandescent debut.”—Carolyn Kormann, staff writer, The New Yorker

“A New York City transplant recounts her time with a supremely difficult dog . . . This . . . touching story has lessons for all animal lovers.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Throughout [Heyward’s] journey, readers can feel her anxiety as she tries to understand Freddie and as she shows him love that sometimes complicates her human relationships. As she navigates her dog’s world, she ponders how much we should change another’s behavior just to fit our own expectations. It’s a touching story that will resonate with every dog lover.”—Booklist