My Father and Other Animals cover art

My Father and Other Animals

How I Took on the Family Farm

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My Father and Other Animals

By: Sam Vincent
Narrated by: Chris Miller
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About this listen

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

Sam Vincent is a twenty-something writer 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 a calf 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.

©2022 Sam Vincent (P)2022 Spotify Audiobooks
Funny Witty Memoir
All stars
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Inspring story of two men and a farm told without ego. I enjoyed every minute of it.

succession and regen

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Well written Sam. Drawing together common themes of navigating modern rural life- back to the future, a father and son’s relationship - delivered with good humour.

A great story of a father and son truly getting to know each other

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.