My Father and Other Animals: How I Took on the Family Farm (Paperback)

A moving and hilarious fish-out-of-water memoir of a millennial leaving his inner-city life to take over the family farm.

Winner, Prime Minister's Literary Award for Nonfiction 2023

'My Father and Other Animals is a warm, surprising and beautifully crafted book.' -Billy Griffiths, author of Deep Time Dreaming

Sam Vincent is a twenty-something writer living in the inner suburbs, scrabbling to make ends meet, when he gets a call from his mother: his father has stuck his hand in a woodchipper, but 'not to worry - it wasn't like that scene in Fargo or anything'. When Sam returns to the family farm to help out, his life takes a new and unexpected direction.

Whether castrating calves or buying a bull - or knocking in a hundred fence posts by hand when his dad hides the post-driver - Sam's farming apprenticeship is an education in grit and shit. But there are victories, too: nurturing a fig orchard to bloom; learning to read the land; joining forces with Indigenous elders to protect a special site. Slowly, Sam finds himself thinking differently about the farm, about his father and about his relationship with both.

By turns affecting, hilarious and utterly surprising, this memoir melds humour and fierce honesty in an unsentimental love letter. It's about belonging, humility and regeneration - of land, family and culture. What passes from father to son on this unruly patch of earth is more than a livelihood; it is a legacy.

'Sam Vincent probes deeply into some of the biggest issues of our time ... This book is a celebration of the love of land and builds bridges of understanding that will appeal to a broad cross section of readers.' -Judges' comments, Prime Minister's Literary Awards

'My Father and Other Animals is a beautiful tale of legacy, family, and a millennial finding his place in the world.' -Samuel Bernard, The Weekend Australian 'Notable Books'

'For any reader desiring to understand contemporary rural Australia, this entertaining and important book is a must-read.' -Charles Massy, author of Call of the Reed Warbler

'Bloody hilarious and salt-of-the-earth heartwarming, My Father and Other Animals is an absolute treasure of a book.' -Anna Krien, author of Act of Grace, Night Games and Into the Woods

'A farmer, his son ... what to forget and what to remember, how to inherit and when to change. Sam Vincent has learned a few things from his dad, and among them is how to pay attention. For those of us who hunt our food plastic-wrapped in aisle three, this is a funny, kindly and observant introduction to the landscape that wraps around our cities, keeps us alive and means the world.' -Kate Holden, author of The Winter Road

Selected for the 2022 Grattan Institute Prime Minister's Summer Reading List

Sam Vincent's writing has appeared in The Monthly, The Saturday Paper, Griffith Review and The Best Australian Essays. His first book, Blood and Guts, was longlisted for the Walkley Book Award and in 2019 he won the Walkley Award for longform feature writing. He runs a cattle and fig farm in the Yass Valley, NSW, and supplies fruit to some of the best restaurants in the Canberra region.