Winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Award, 2010Introduced by Yann MartelAbandoned 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.The story of the child raised by beasts is timeless. But in Dog Boy Eva Hornung has created such a vivid and original telling, so viscerally convincing, that it becomes not just new but definitive- Yes, this is how it would be.
Winner of Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction 2010 (Australia) Short-listed for ABIA, Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2010 (Australia) Short-listed for ASL Gold Medal 2010 (Australia) Short-listed for Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction 2009 (Australia)
“'Astonishing...a world of terrifying tactility--of teeth, teat, fur and claw...The novel is a strange, sombre, sobering triumph.'”
‘Astonishing…a world of terrifying tactility—of teeth, teat, fur and claw…The novel is a strange, sombre, sobering triumph.’ Sydney Morning Herald
‘Dog Boy is rich in interest and ideas…Hornung is wonderful on the physical characteristics, both beautiful and repulsive, of animals and children…Dog Boy unravels some of the reasons why humans and dogs are co-dependant and at the same time reinvents the idea of the wild child as an urban survivor, suggesting a future so menacing we prefer to ignore it.’ Age
'Hornung’s writing is beautiful and assured: her descriptions of this dog boy life are vivid and visceral and sensual and utterly compelling. She also writes about the dogs with breath-taking beauty—the penultimate climactic scene will squeeze your heart. Dog Boy is an ambitious concept, magnificently realised—you’ll never look at a dog in the same way again.’ Sunday Telegraph
‘A grim and primal story of unnatural selection…This tough new novel represents an important shift in emphasis and a broadening of her vision as she continues her forensic investigation into the human condition.’ Australian
‘Grotesque, moving and utterly astonishing…Horning has come up with something improbably different in Dog Boy…a story that never veers into the impossible.' Herald Sun
‘In exploring what it might be like to be a dog from a human perspective, Dog Boy sheds much light on what it is like to be human. Extraordinary, compelling and utterly believable.’ -- Yann Martel
Eva Hornung was born in Bendigo and now lives in rural South Australia on a Morgan horse farm. Hornung is an award-winning writer of literary fiction and criticism. Her novels have been short-listed and won many awards including the Australian/Vogel Literary Award, the Nita May Dobbie Award, the Asher Literary Award, the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year, the ALS Gold Medal, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, the Steel Rudd Literary Award, the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction and the Miles Franklin Award. Hornung’s highly acclaimed Dog Boy was shortlisted for numerous prizes and won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award in 2010. Her most recent novel The Last Garden won the South Australian Premier’s Prize for Literature in 2018.
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