Harvill Secker wins nine-way auction to new memoir by teacher and mountaineer Cédric Sapin-Defour

Harvill Secker has won a nine-way auction to a new memoir by teacher and mountaineer Cédric Sapin-Defour. Senior editor Ellie Steel acquired world English-language rights to Ubac and Me: A Life of Love and Adventure with a French Mountain Dog from Thomas Guillaume at Les Éditions Stock, with North American rights sold by Catherine Wood to Laura Perciasepe, executive editor at Summit Books. Harvill Secker will publish in April 2025, in an English translation by Adriana Hunter.

Ubac and Me is Sapin-Defour’s “unforgettable memoir of the power of a dog’s transformative love”, and follows Sapin-Defour’s first sighting of the newspaper ad for a litter of Bernese Mountain Dog puppies, through the 13 years they spent together in the Alps.

Sapin-Defour said: “Ubac never left the Alps. They were his garden, his kingdom; there was so much to explore. Now, thanks to this book, he can travel beyond the mountains and over the sea. Thank you to Harvill Secker for welcoming Ubac. I know he is in good hands.”

Steel said: “I was completely charmed by Cédric and Ubac’s extraordinary partnership and their world of adventure, from their breezy walks in exhilaratingly beautiful Alpine scenery, to Cedric’s reflections on how Ubac taught him to live in the moment and the mental health benefits of canine companionship, drawing on different cultures and philosophies. Perhaps most powerfully, Cédric voices his immense grief after Ubac’s death – and what heals us after loss – in a gorgeously moving tribute which I hope will bring solace and comfort to many readers and dog lovers.”