Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. Today's book is a horror story,

sort of. It's called The Hitch, and it's about a young boy who gets possessed by a dog, a corgi,

specifically. This part of the book is all fun and hijinks, but the really scary part is that

the book is actually about how to truly love the ones around you

without you trying to shape them or judge them. In this interview with Here Now's Indira Lakshmanan,

author Sarah Levine talks about how the book was inspired by her own experience as a parent

and by trying to balance guiding her kid without getting in the way. That's after the break.

Can a six-year-old boy be possessed by the spirit of a corgi he met in a dog park? That's the

enigma at the center of Sarah Levine's hilarious new novel, The Hitch. It's narrated by Rose,

an artisanal yogurt entrepreneur, vegan eco-warier,

and secular Jewish feminist who criticizes everyone in her life except for her beloved nephew Nathan.

Rose relishes Nathan's weekly visits, but she disapproves of how her brother and his wife are

rearing him. So she's ecstatic when Nathan's parents reluctantly

agree to let him stay with her for a week while they're on vacation. Things start to go awry when

Rose's Newfoundland kills a corgi named Hazel. Nathan insists that Hazel's soul has leapt into his

body and hitched onto his soul, and he starts to act accordingly.

The New York Times calls the hitch winningly zany.

Kirkus says it's destined to become a cult classic.

The book is out this week, and author Sarah Levine joins us now.

Welcome.

Thank you so much.

I want to know what gave you the idea of a boy possessed by a small herding dog made famous as the

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