From the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Homer’s Odyssey comes a tender, joyful, utterly unforgettable novel, primarily told through the eyes of the most observant member of any human family: the cat.
Humans best understand the truth of things if they come at it indirectly. Like how sometimes the best way to catch a mouse that’s right in front of you is to back up before you pounce.
So notes Prudence, the irresistible brown tabby at the center of Gwen Cooper’s tender, joyful, utterly unforgettable novel, which is mostly told through the eyes of this curious (and occasionally cranky) feline.
When five-week-old Prudence meets a woman named Sarah in a deserted construction site on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, she knows she’s found the human she was meant to adopt. For three years their lives are filled with laughter, tuna, catnaps, music, and the unchanging routines Prudence craves. Then one day Sarah doesn’t come home. From Prudence’s perch on the windowsill she sees Laura, the daughter who hardly ever comes to visit Sarah, arrive with her new husband. They’re carrying boxes. Before they even get to the front door, Prudence realizes that her life has changed forever.
Suddenly Prudence finds herself living in a strange apartment with humans she barely knows. It could take years to train them in the feline courtesies and customs (for example, a cat should always be fed before the humans, and at the same exact time every day) that Sarah understood so well. Prudence clings to the hope that Sarah will come back for her while Laura, a rising young corporate attorney, tries to push away memories of her mother and the tumultuous childhood spent in her mother’s dusty downtown record store. But the secret joys, past hurts, and life-changing moments that make every mother-daughter relationship special will come to the surface. With Prudence’s help Laura will learn that the past, like a mother’s love, never dies.
Poignant, insightful, and laugh-out-loud funny in the ways only a cat can be, Love Saves the Day is a story of hope, healing, and how the love of an animal can make all of us better humans. It’s the story of a mother and daughter divided by the turmoil of bohemian New York, and the opinionated, irrepressible feline who will become the bridge between them. It’s a novel for anyone who’s ever lost a loved one, wondered what their cat was really thinking, or fallen asleep with a purring feline nestled in their arms. Prudence, a cat like no other, is sure to steal your heart.
Love Saves The Day, turns 10 this year, so we had to celebrate with a revisit to this familiar favourite.
Gwen Cooper has a real talent for giving a voice to our beloved, furry friends. I’ve followed her writing career for over decade and she continues to dazzle us in all that she does.
Homers Odyssey and Love Saves the Day rank within the top ten best books I have read in my life. I have found myself returning to these two over and over again.
This book isn’t just for cat crazed people. The storyline digs much deeper than just the basic worlds of our feline friends. Love Saves The Day, explores humanity and all the basic human emotions as observed through the eyes of a cat. Cooper offers lessons on how to grieve, how to overcome obstacles, how to love—and most importantly, how to live.
The words on the pages linger in your mind long after the last page has been read. Love does save the day, and this book is a great reminder to appreciate the life, and all the loves we have/had.
If you have yet to read the masterpiece, Homer’s Odyssey –READ IT, RIGHT MEOW!
Maison Moonchild 
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