About this item

An immersive blend of chicken-keeping memoir and animal welfare reporting by a journalist who accidentally became obsessed with her flock.Since first domesticating the chicken thousands of years ago, humans have become exceptionally adept at raising them for food. Yet most people rarely interact with chickens or know much about them. In Under the Henfluence, culture reporter Tove Danovich explores the lives of these quirky, mysterious birds who stole her heart the moment her first box of chicks arrived at the post office.From a hatchery in Iowa to a chicken show in Ohio to a rooster rescue in Minnesota, Danovich interviews the people breeding, training, healing, and, most importantly, adoring chickens. With more than 60 billion chickens living on industrial farms around the world, they're easy to dismiss as just another dinner ingredient.



About the Author

Tove Danovich

Tove Danovich's nonfiction debut, Under the Henfluence: Inside the World of Backyard Chickens and the People Who Love Them is forthcoming from Agate (US) and William Collins (UK) on March 28, 2023. Her work appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Ringer, Eater, NPR, Vox, and many others. Her articles have been selected for Year's Best Sports Writing and Best Food Writing and been notable selections in Best American Food Writing and Best American Travel Writing. She has been interviewed about her work by 99% Invisible, Marketplace, KERA Think, Christopher Kimball's Milk Street Radio, and others. She lives in Portland, Oregon and works as a freelance journalist.



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