I'm not sure I can even articulate what moved me so deeply about this book, but I think it had something to do with the resonance of Ove. Ove is every one of us who has ever quietly soldiered on, asking for nothing. And that spoke to my soul.
'A JOY FROM START TO FINISH' - Gavin Extence, author of THE UNIVERSE VERSUS ALEX WOODS
There is something about Ove.
At first sight, he is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots - neighbours who can't reverse a trailer properly, joggers, shop assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup d'etat that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents' Association. He will persist in making his daily inspection rounds of the local streets.
This book is an absolute work of genius. I really doubt if anyone, anywhere, has written so well about boarding school life. It's not just the school life, though - it's Willans' wry observations on so many features of society. Although the book was first published in the 1960s, I did not consider it dated. Every line in it is utterly hilarious, and it is further enhanced by the wonderful illustrations of Ronald Searle.
It's hard, really hard, to write from the point of view of an animal, and when that animal is a cat, the difficulty soars. Duane has done it better than any other writer I can think of. Add to that a wonderful Sci-Fi/Fantasy crossover plot, and a Quest - there's just nothing not to love. No cute kitties in this book - the characters are mature, and absolutely believable. An utterly brilliant read.
Rhiow seems a perfectly ordinary New York City cat. Or so her humans think--but she is much more than she appears. With her partners Saash and Urruah, she collaborates with human wizards, protecting the earth from dark forces and helping to maintain the network of magical gateways between different realities.
What do you do when everything you cared about is gone? For Patricia Wells, widowed at forty-two, the question is more than merely hypothetical. From the lowest point of despair, through the loss of her freedom and everything familiar, Patricia must find a way to reinvent her life. A journey of redemption.
