The Hitch
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jan 13, 2026
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A KIRKUS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
“A wonderful storyteller with a vibrant voice.”—New York Times
From the author of the cult classic Treasure Island!!!, a delightfully unhinged comedy following a woman as she attempts to exorcise the spirit of a dead corgi from her nephew and renegotiate the borders of her previously rational world
Rose Cutler defines herself by her exacting standards. As an anti-racist, Jewish secular feminist eco-warrior, she is convinced she knows the right way to do everything, including parent her six-year-old nephew Nathan. When Rose offers to look after him while his parents visit Mexico for a week, her brother and sister-in-law reluctantly agree, provided she understands the rules—routine, bedtime, homework—and doesn’t overstep. But when Rose’s Newfoundland attacks and kills a corgi at the park, Nathan starts acting strangely: barking, overeating, talking to himself. Rose mistakes this behavior as repressed grief over the corgi’s death, but Nathan insists he isn’t grieving, and the dog isn’t dead. Her soul leaped into his body, and now she’s living inside him. Now Rose must banish the corgi from her nephew before the week ends and his parents return to collect their child.
With the ferocious absurdity of Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch and the dark, brazen humor of Melissa Broder’s Death Valley, The Hitch is a tantalizingly bizarre novel about loneliness, bad boundaries, and the ill-fated strategy of micromanaging everything and everyone around you.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Levine (Treasure Island!!!) serves up a bizarre and mordantly funny tale of a six-year-old who might be possessed by a dead corgi. It's narrated by Rose Cutler, a progressive who frequently clashes with her uptight sister-in-law, Astrid, the mother of her nephew, Nathan. Rose is delighted when she's allowed to babysit Nathan for a week while his parents vacation in Mexico. She feeds him vegan lentil loaf, explains the environmental devastation caused by the fast-food industry, and takes him to the dog park with her Newfoundland, Walter. Disaster ensues when a corgi named Hazel nips at Nathan and Walter moves in to protect him, snapping Hazel's neck. Soon after, Nathan starts acting like a dog (he barks, sticks his head out the car window, and laps at his dinner plate). Nathan claims Hazel "jump into me," and attributes her spirit to his newfound ability to recite Shakespeare. It's all fun and games until Rose decides Hazel must be exorcised before Nathan's parents come home. Levine balances her tender depiction of the aunt and nephew's bond with Rose's excoriating rants, as in her monologue on corgis ("laughable cuddle toys with stubby legs and dopey eyes bred to entertain the bourgeois dregs of humanity"). It's a vibrant portrait of childhood wonder and adult anxiety.
