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y separately published work icon Dog Boy single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2009... 2009 Dog Boy
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Abandoned in a big city at the onset of winter, a hungry four-year-old boy follows a stray dog to her lair. There in the rich smelly darkness, in the rub of hair, claws and teeth, he joins four puppies suckling at their mother's teats. And so begins Romochka's life as a dog.

Weak and hairless, with his useless nose and blunt little teeth, Romochka is ashamed of what a poor dog he makes. But learning how to be something else...that's a skill a human can master. Fortunately - because one day Romochka will have to learn how to be a boy.' (Publisher's Blurb)

Notes

  • Dedication: For Philip Waldron
  • Reading Group Guide available through the Text Publishing website.

Contents

* Contents derived from the Melbourne, Victoria,:Text Publishing , 2016 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Introduction, Yann Martel , essay

'We are a lonely species, dwelling on an isolated ridge; aspiring to be with gods, resigned to living with animals.

'We live with animals in many ways, in a blend of fact and fiction. A number of them, livestock, the chickens and cows of the world, we exploit mercilessly in their millions, milking them, killing them, stealing their eggs. This happens furtively, in industrial slaughterhouses and dairies that don’t advertise themselves, to animals that we keep in scrupulous anonymity.' (Publication summary) 

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2009 .
      image of person or book cover 6888347016461739605.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 293p.
      Note/s:
      • Published: March 2009
      ISBN: 9781921520426 (hbk.), 9781921520099 (pbk.)
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Viking ,
      2010 .
      image of person or book cover 4967922685463056479.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 293p.
      Note/s:
      • Published: 18th March 2010
      ISBN: 9780670021499
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Bloomsbury ,
      2010 .
      image of person or book cover 2662225233361486112.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 290p.
      Note/s:
      • Published: 18th January 2010
      ISBN: 9780747599050 (hbk.), 074759905X (hbk.)
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2016 .
      image of person or book cover 6645307947967985629.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 320p.
      Note/s:
      • Published: 24/02/2016
      ISBN: 9781922182845
      Series: y separately published work icon Text Classics Text Publishing (publisher), Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2012- Z1851461 2012 series - publisher novel 'Great books by great Australian storytellers.' (Text website.)
Alternative title: Hund pojken
Language: Swedish
    • Stockholm,
      c
      Sweden,
      c
      Scandinavia, Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Forum ,
      2009 .
      image of person or book cover 5327370344949775820.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 267p.
      Note/s:
      • Published July 2012
      ISBN: 9789175031033
    • Stockholm,
      c
      Sweden,
      c
      Scandinavia, Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Bonniers ,
      2012 .
      image of person or book cover 1839968738751906288.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 267p.
      ISBN: 9789143046281

Other Formats

  • Braille.
  • Sound recording.

Works about this Work

The Necessity of an Anthropomorphic Approach to Children’s Literature Chengcheng You , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature in Education , June vol. 52 no. 3 2021; (p. 183-199)
'The study focuses on the necessity of an anthropomorphic approach in deconstructing the symbolic understandings of animals in children’s literature, and considers how such an approach can be used to draw ethical attention to the unnatural history of animals in the Anthropocene. The paper analyses three children’s novels that depict animals without representing their subjectivity in characteristically human terms. These novels are Eva Hornung’s ferality tale Dog Boy (2009), Sonya Hartnett’s fable The Midnight Zoo (2011) and Kate Applegate’s animal autobiography The One and Only Ivan (2012). Informed by Jacques Derrida’s anti-anthropocentric views and the ethical discourse of creaturely vulnerability, this essay argues that the world’s present state of cascading environmental impoverishment demands an anthropomorphic approach that is not inherently anthropocentric, along with an emerging kind of creaturely consciousness.' (Publication abstract)
As Closely Bonded as We Are:” Animalographies, Kinship, and Conflict in Ceridwen Dovey’s Only the Animals and Eva Hornung’s Dog Boy Grace Moore , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: A/b : Auto/Biography Studies , vol. 35 no. 1 2020; (p. 207-229)

'Using the fiction of Ceridwen Dovey and Eva Hornung, this essay considers animalography as a medium to represent animal emotions, particularly when ties of kinship break down. It addresses the difficulties and power dynamics associated with speaking for nonhuman others, while engaging with Cynthia Huff’s cautions regarding the posthumanist life narrative.' (Publication abstract)

The “Unimaginable Border” and Bare Life in Eva Hornung’s Dog Boy Lucy Neave , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , June vol. 54 no. 2 2019; (p. 243–256)
'This article offers a consideration of the figure of the feral child in Australian writer Eva Hornung’s Dog Boy(2009), a novel based on stories circulating in the media about children raised by dogs in post-perestroika Russia. The book was praised for its exploration of the liminal space occupied by its protagonist, Romochka, the ecocritical potential in the idea of ferality, and its grimly realistic portrayal of both Romochka’s privations and the comfort offered by the company and loyalty of dogs. I read the novel less optimistically, through Giorgio Agamben’s conception of “bare life” and the metaphorical instrument of its production, the anthropological machine as described in The Open: Man and Animal. Romochka is excluded from political life and from legal protection, yet is subject to state intervention. Further, I argue that the novel is engaged in Australian and international debates about people excluded from political life and from the protection of the law, such as the homeless and refugees, who are nonetheless exposed to state power and surveillance.'

 (Publication abstract)

What I’m Reading Rachel Leary , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2018;
Introduction Yann Martel , 2016 essay
— Appears in: Dog Boy 2016;

'We are a lonely species, dwelling on an isolated ridge; aspiring to be with gods, resigned to living with animals.

'We live with animals in many ways, in a blend of fact and fiction. A number of them, livestock, the chickens and cows of the world, we exploit mercilessly in their millions, milking them, killing them, stealing their eggs. This happens furtively, in industrial slaughterhouses and dairies that don’t advertise themselves, to animals that we keep in scrupulous anonymity.' (Publication summary) 

Animal Instinct and a Boy's Best Friend Kathy Hunt , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 14-15 March 2009; (p. 11)

— Review of Dog Boy Eva Hornung , 2009 single work novel
A Wild Child's Beauty as a Beast Helen Elliott , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 14 March 2009; (p. 23)

— Review of Dog Boy Eva Hornung , 2009 single work novel
It's a Dog-Eat-Dog World Claire Sutherland , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Herald Sun , 14 March 2009; (p. 24)

— Review of Dog Boy Eva Hornung , 2009 single work novel
In Search of Society Christopher Bantick , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 14 - 15 March 2009; (p. 23)

— Review of Dog Boy Eva Hornung , 2009 single work novel
Well Read Katharine England , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 14 March 2009; (p. 24)

— Review of Dog Boy Eva Hornung , 2009 single work novel
Child of the Pack Diane Stubbings , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 28 February 2009; (p. 11,16)
The Comfort of Creatures Jane Sullivan , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 28 February 2009; (p. 20-21) The Sydney Morning Herald , 28 February - 1 March 2009; (p. 30-31)
Twists on a Classic Theme Katphin Moo , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 7 March 2009; (p. 29)
My Family and Other Animals Deborah Bogle , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 28 March 2009; (p. 15-17)
Dog's Eye View : Sophie Cunningham Talks to Eva Hornung about Her Latest Novel, Dog Boy Sophie Cunningham (interviewer), 2009 single work interview
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 68 no. 4 2009; (p. 170-179)
Last amended 22 Mar 2022 15:47:58
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