I Got the Dog

"In the wake of a betrayal by the love of her life, Boyden must find the strength to rebuild a life in ruins. I Got the Dog is a luminous memoir written in stunning prose about the power of perspective and the reclamation of self-love. By turns, joyous and gutting, this is a book that begs to be read and reread."
—Maurice Carlos Ruffin, author of We Cast a Shadow

"Amanda Boyden’s I Got the Dog is a curious, fascinating memoir, at times magical, at times mystical, and always rendered in vibrant, seductive prose. Life has a way of offering unexpected turns of fate, some of them entirely unwelcome, and Boyden doesn’t shrink from her own jolts and tremors. In the end, though, with humor, compassion, and raw honesty, she leads us to a place of beauty and redemption."
—Dinty W. Moore, author of The Accidental Buddhist

"A memoir of survival, bold and gorgeous in its telling—I Got the Dog fearlessly excavates the towering figures of Amanda Boyden’s past and the shadows they cast, while allowing the writer to step into the light and reclaim a brilliance all her own."
—Sonja Livingston, author of Ghostbread

"Amanda Boyden's I Got the Dog is a thrilling ride with one of the most original writers working today. Boyden navigates through our current crazy COVID-19 infected world without ever losing her humanity and grace, and flashes back to the floods of Hurricane Katrina. While death, illness, freak accidents, and heartbreak all occur, we sense she is the ultimate survivor, and can help us persevere as well. I loved her kindness to her parents and, of course Fry, the dog of the title. Every sentence sparks with original synapses. I think she's a genius!"
—Laura Shaine Cunningham, author of the memoirs Sleeping Arrangements and A Place in the Country

"In I Got The Dog Amanda Boyden tackles the unwieldy suitcase of her life, unpacks it bruise by bruise, with such a deft hand, that you will be startled to realize how much of it you are carrying with you as you close the last page of this wonderful book."
—Colin Broderick, author of Orangutan, editor of The Writing Irish of New York

"For its readers, one of the great pleasures of Amanda Boyden’s memoir is being in the company of a writer who uses language with such assurance and grace. Another is the narrator’s ability to take the reader into the most elusive and solitary moments of her life as well as the more publicly defining ones. But in the end what I found most remarkable is this memoir’s generosity in regard to every person who appears in its pages. Never dismissive, the narrator is deeply attentive to each of the figures who come and go from her life. In the end, the world she observes so closely opens to a life of wonderment and joy."
—Kathleen Hill, author of She Read to Us in the Late Afternoons: A Life in Novels

"Amanda Boyden, ninja warrior, dares others to read I Got the Dog and hear her say, 'I want to love you, and I want you to love me back. Here I am, vulnerable, naked, writing. I am not afraid to tell my story and lay myself bare to the world.' And I say, bravo. Boyden gives other women permission to open up and tell their own stories, to unleash themselves, in the pursuit of their own freedom from the bondage of secrecy. This is a life-changing book. I know, because it has changed mine."
—Louise Post, singer-songwriter producer