A Year of Cats and Dogs, Margaret Hawkins
A Year of Cats and Dogs, Margaret Hawkins
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A Year of Cats and Dogs

Author: Margaret Hawkins

Narrator: Heather Henderson

Unabridged: 6 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/31/2018

Categories: Fiction


Synopsis

What happens when nothing happens? Maryanne wonders in A Year of Cats and Dogs, a darkly funny yet hopeful novel about a woman in midlife who feels surrounded by death. She answers her own question by deciding to find out."I wanted to embrace entropy, to stop working so hard at keeping things up, to go AWOL from the productive world I'd so long been a part of," she tells us at the beginning of the novel. "The clearer it became that Phillip wasn't coming back, the more I wanted to hurry up and let things go just to see what would happen."As it turns out, a lot happens. Even as Maryanne's world slows down and comes apart, curious revelations begin to emerge about the daily life she's formerly taken for granted. She discovers she can hear the thoughts of animals, starting with her own opinionated dog and cat. Then the veterinarian at the animal shelter where she volunteers offers her a job as a dog whisperer and asks her on a date to his mother's funeral. When her father falls ill, she is reunited with her estranged sister, and when he dies, they learn about his secret life.The book contains recipes for the consoling, if plain, foods Maryanne cooks for her family and friends, along with the inner dialog that accompanies them, and each chapter is linked to a corresponding chapter in the I Ching, reflecting that book's age-old wisdom that says that sometimes no action is the best action of all.

About Margaret Hawkins

Margaret Hawkins is the author of a few novels, including A Year of Cats and Dogs, Lydia’s Party, and How to Survive a Natural Disaster as well as a memoir about her sister, After Schizophrenia: The Story of My Sister’s Reawakening. She has also written for the Chicago Sun-Times and is a senior lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

About Heather Henderson

Heather Henderson is a voice talent, theater critic, and dramaturg. In addition to narrating audiobooks, she has voiced hundreds of commercial and educational projects, and her arts reviews and poems have appeared in newspapers and magazines across the country. She holds MFA and DFA degrees from the Yale School of Drama. She lives in Oregon.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Allison

"Original" and "ambitious" can mean almost anything in a review, depending on context. Original ideas may be ill-advised, and an ambitious premise can be ineptly executed. But when I call Margaret Hawkins's debut novel, A YEAR OF CATS AND DOGS, original and ambitious, it is the highest praise I can......more

Goodreads review by Sara

ARC received through the First Reads giveaway program. This quiet, meditative novel follows Maryanne as she struggles to come to grips with the loss of her boyfriend and job, her father's illness, a new relationship, and the fact that she finds she can mentally communicate with dogs and cats. It soun......more


Quotes

“I relished this quirky, sparkling novel.” Julia Keller, Pulitzer Prize–winning Chicago Tribune critic

“Hawkins is a fine writer. A Year of Cats and Dogs would make a great stocking-stuffer for the holidays and, for sure, be an up-front offering at animal leagues, pet shops, and shelters everywhere.” Independent (London)

“Hawkins spins an offbeat and delightful tale of a midlife anti-crisis…The unhurried and lighthearted narrative…is a pleasant departure from the standard midlife crisis story.” Publishers Weekly

“Hawkins…has a fashioned a first novel that deftly traces the eruption and easing of emotional incoherence, while addressing serious questions of life and death with jaunty and edgy humor not unlike that of bestselling Jennifer Weiner.” Booklist

“Hawkins seamlessly weaves together many eclectic elements: soup recipes, I Ching meditations, bits of maudlin poetry, a pet’s simple request for toast, the heartache of death. You don’t have to be an animal lover to enjoy this funny and moving debut novel.” Library Journal