Ubac and Me

A Life of Love and Adventure With a French Mountain Dog

Cédric Sapin-Defour, Adriana Hunter

$45

Hardback

Forthcoming
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French

Harvill Secker
17 May 2025

Biography: literary; Memoirs; Climbing & mountaineering

The international sensation, a charming and moving memoir of a dog's transformative love, and an intimate journey into what heals us after loss.

Having a dog as company makes nothing feel excessive - not time or space. It's not even about passing time, but being of it.

A tiny ad in a local newspaper catches Cedric Sapin-Defour's eye- a litter of Bernese Mountain Dog puppies need homes. A lonely, single, sports teacher and mountain climber in the French Alps, Cedric visits the dogs and immediately falls for the puppy with a blue collar.

Named Ubac, French for the north side of the mountain - the rainy, cloudy slope - the puppy quickly upends Cedric's life. They go on hikes together, taking to the hills and exploring, forging a bond that brings joy and a sense of fulfillment and adventure. They brave the world together, hate to be apart, crave the mountains and the natural world; they protect each other.

Over the course of thirteen years, their pack expands to include Mathilde, Cedric's wife, and more dogs. Ubac and Me is an intimate meditation on a joyous life lived too fast, the aching pain of separation, and the transformative effect of unconditional love. A dog named for the rainy side of the mountain is an inspiring lesson in how walking the rocky, cloudy hills together can bring the greatest light, the sunniest joys, even if the shared journey is unbearably short.

'Not just a tribute to the love humans feel for their pets but also a means of voicing the deep grief that can be felt after a dog's death, when all that is left is a collar and hairs, and the house seems too big without them.' Guardian

Ubac and Me has been a surprise bestseller and word-of-mouth sensation in France, championed by indie booksellers, selling 400,000 copies.

Translated by Adriana Hunter.

By: Cédric Sapin-Defour
Translated by: Adriana Hunter
Imprint: Harvill Secker
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 222mm, Width: 141mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 393g
ISBN: 9781787304833
ISBN 10: 1787304833
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 17 May 2025
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Cedric Sapin-Defour (Author) Cedric Sapin-Defour is a French writer, sports teacher and mountaineer, whose work focuses on the slightly crazy dream that man and nature can learn to live together again. He lives in the small Alpine town of Beaufort, with Mathilde and Lulu, their adopted Romanian street dog. Ubac and Me has been a surprise bestseller and word-of-mouth sensation in France, selling more than half a million copies. Adriana Hunter (Translator) Adriana Hunter has translated more than one hundred books, and has won or been shortlisted for numerous translation prizes, most recently as the runner-up for the 2024 Scott Moncrieff Prize for her translation of Herve Le Tellier's The Anomaly. She lives in Kent, England.