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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
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Dedication: For Philip Waldron
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Reading Group Guide available through the Text Publishing website.
Contents
-
Introduction,
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
Other Formats
- Braille.
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
The Necessity of an Anthropomorphic Approach to Children’s Literature
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
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)
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The “Unimaginable Border” and Bare Life in Eva Hornung’s Dog Boy
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)
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What I’m Reading
2018
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2018; -
Introduction
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
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 14-15 March 2009; (p. 11)
— Review of Dog Boy 2009 single work novel -
A Wild Child's Beauty as a Beast
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 14 March 2009; (p. 23)
— Review of Dog Boy 2009 single work novel -
It's a Dog-Eat-Dog World
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Herald Sun , 14 March 2009; (p. 24)
— Review of Dog Boy 2009 single work novel -
In Search of Society
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 14 - 15 March 2009; (p. 23)
— Review of Dog Boy 2009 single work novel -
Well Read
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 14 March 2009; (p. 24)
— Review of Dog Boy 2009 single work novel -
Child of the Pack
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 28 February 2009; (p. 11,16) -
The Comfort of Creatures
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
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 7 March 2009; (p. 29) -
My Family and Other Animals
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)
Awards
- 2010 winner Prime Minister's Literary Awards — Fiction
- 2010 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Literary Fiction Book of the Year
- 2010 shortlisted ASAL Awards — ALS Gold Medal
- 2009 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Prize for Fiction
