“Love Saves the Day,” by Gwen Cooper
Gwen Cooper, New York Times bestselling author of Homer’s Odyssey and Love Saves the Day, discussed her latest novel with Time magazine. A few excerpts:
TIME: Tell me about Prudence, the cat at the center of your new novel.
GWEN COOPER: “Prudence will be familiar to people who read Homer’s Odyssey because she is based very closely on my cat Scarlet. Scarlet is that classic aloof cat. She liked me, but she didn’t really have any patience for anybody else, including other cats. And when I decided to write a novel from a cat’s point of view, I really wanted a narrator who would have a certain objective distance from the character. I mean, she has a very loving heart; she loves the people that she loves. But she’s not viewing them through this kind of foggy haze of adoration where she just loves everything that they do.”
TIME: Prudence goes through an awful lot in the book.
“It’s the story of a mother and grown daughter who have a difficult relationship. Prudence is the mother’s cat, and her human [the mother] dies very early in the story and so she goes to live with the daughter and the daughter’s new husband. The story is told mostly from Prudence’s perspective, but occasionally the mother and daughter also chime in. This cat and the daughter grow to love each other and help each other heal from their mutual loss—and also through some other issues that they have in their own lives. That makes it sound very serious! I should add that Prudence is funny because cats are funny.”
Gwen intends to visit no-kill animal shelters around the country as part of her Love Saves the Day tour.
