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Anna Heyward and Emily Stokes s+13 at McNally Jackson Seaport s+14

Event Details

Tuesday, September 8, 2026

7:00pm – 8:00pm

Free

If you’d like to preorder the book as your event ticket, you can do so at this link.

An extraordinary memoir about learning to see the world through a dog’s eyes, by a New Yorker writer and animal behavior expert

“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.”—Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief

When Anna Heyward adopted Freddie, a rescued Italian greyhound, she was thrilled to bring a dog into her life. But Freddie, she quickly realized, had severe separation anxiety, unable to be left alone for more than thirty seconds without crying uncontrollably or injuring himself. Some would have given him back, but Anna dedicated her life to entering the mind of her dog, putting her relationship, social life, and job at risk. As Anna observed Freddie’s behavior, she began to experience the world as he did, and she changed—but not in the way you might expect.

Living with Freddie is a meditation on what it means to be bad or good, on how much we can—or should—try to alter another being’s behavior, and what is possible to know about another mind. But at its heart, this is a beautiful, heart-wrenching portrait of the relationship between a human and a dog. And at the end of Freddie’s story, you, too, may find yourself changed.

Anna Heyward worked on the editorial staff of The New Yorker and has an MSc in animal behavior and welfare science at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. Her writing has also been published in The New York Times, The New York Times Book ReviewT, The Paris Review, and Vogue, among others. She was born in Melbourne, Australia and lives in New York.

Emily Stokes is Editor of The Paris Review. She has worked at Harper’sT: The New York Times Style Magazine, and as a senior editor at The New Yorker.

About s+4

a group of customers shop for books at the mcnally jackson bookstore at the seaport

McNally Jackson

NYC’s beloved McNally Jackson’s Seaport outpost spans two floors of the historic Schermerhorn Row building, built in 1811. Gorgeous windows overlook the cobblestones, and cozy armchairs anchor each room. Browse the shelves of over 65,000 books, and bring the kids to explore the big children’s section. If you’re looking for stationary, be sure to check out their first floor paper goods section. Friendly staff are on hand to help you find your next great read.