
“Startlingly imaginative.‘Lily and the Octopus’ is a love story sure to assert its place in the canine lit pack.Be prepared for outright laughs and searing or silly moments of canine and human recognition.

As Lily might say, ‘YOU! MUST! READ! THIS! BOOK!’” “ Lily and the Octopus is the dog book you must read this summer…. Reading this heart-wrenching but ultimately breathtaking novel was a very profound experience…. And grab a tissue: “THERE! WILL! BE! EYE! RAIN!” (New York Newsday). “Startlingly imaginative.this love story is sure to assert its place in the canine lit pack.Be prepared for outright laughs and searing or silly moments of canine and human recognition. Remember the last book you told someone they had to read? Lily and the Octopus is the next one. Introducing a dazzling and completely original new voice in fiction and an unforgettable hound that will break your heart-and put it back together again. By turns hilarious and poignant, an adventure with spins into magic realism and beautifully evoked truths of loss and longing, Lily and the Octopus reminds us how it feels to love fiercely, how difficult it can be to let go, and how the fight for those we love is the greatest fight of all. When Lily’s health is compromised, Ted vows to save her by any means necessary. Ted-a gay, single, struggling writer is stuck: unable to open himself up to intimacy except through the steadfast companionship of Lily, his elderly dachshund. Booklist called it “an exceedingly authentic, keenly insightful, and heartbreakingly poignant tribute to the purity of love between a pet and its human.” The Washington Post labeled it the “must read” dog book of the summer and called reading it a “profound experience.A national bestseller combining the emotional depth of The Art of Racing in the Rain with the magical spirit of The Life of Pi, “ Lily and the Octopus is the dog book you must read this summer” ( The Washington Post). Published in June 2016, the book had a spot on many book of the month lists, generated about 20 international editions and was a national bestseller. It is pitched as Life of Pi meets Marley & Me with elements of The Art of Racing in the Rain. Rowley’s heartbreaking but beautiful debut novel is about the relationship between a man and his dachshund Lily, told in a magical realist style that uses an octopus that attaches to Lily to grapple with ideas about illness (a tumor), death and holding on (and letting go) to the pets we love.

Lauren O’Connor and Julie Rapaport will oversee for Amazon Studios. Author Steven Rowley and Rob Weisbach will executive produce. Michael Mitnick ( The Current War, HBO’s Vinyl) is already attached to write the screenplay.

Amazon Studios has acquired feature film rights to the heartbreaking bestseller Lily and the Octopus.
