When Anne left her teaching job at a Scottish university, her hope was that she would have time to write her own book rather than critique those of others. Learning to Listen is a book about transition and reshaping of identity but also about a dog called Sally, whose arrival turned Anne’s family life upside down. In dealing with the stress that this caused, Anne started to write, and in doing so discovered her own literary voice …
When a thin black and white collie, lying quietly in the bottom of her cage at the rescue centre, caught the eye of a family looking for a companion for their own dog, life as they had known it was irrevocably changed. Overturning all their accumulated wisdom of how to live with dogs, Sally, who had been found running scared on a city street, stretches the tolerance of her owners to the limit.
Charting the first eighteen months of life with a confused dog, Learning to Listen also celebrates and reflects on other beloved dogs, is lightly laced with literary references and the textures of daily life but above all illustrates how a seemingly insurmountable problem can reveal itself as an unexpected invitation into a deeper understanding.
Book details:
- Publisher: Kennedy & Boyd
- Published: May 2013
- ISBN: 9-78184-9211390
Learning to Listen can be purchased from Amazon or you can request a copy from the author by going to the Contact page.
Anne M Scriven 