A cuddly antidote to worrying times, ‘pet lit’ has become a publishing phenomenon. But isn’t it all a bit twee?Picture the scene: it’s the end of a long day. You’re tired, you’re cold, you need to curl up with a cup of tea and something comforting to read. But wait! You also love animals. What better, then, than a copy of A Pug Like Percy, Fiona Harrison’s tale of a cute canine who has been dumped in an animal shelter, but who brings a “little miracle” to Gail and her unhappy family? Or Daisy Bell’s The Christmas Guest, a “heart-warming tale of a homeless puppy with a huge heart”? Or Jacqueline Sheehan’s A Dog Like Lloyd (“Roxanne Pellegrino’s … new life of solitude is interrupted when she meets Lloyd – a stray black labrador with an equally unhappy past”). You get the idea.The genre – let’s go ahead and call it “pet lit” – is booming. Melissa Daley’s Molly and the Cat Cafe has sold more than 20,000 copies, according to book sales monitor Nielsen BookScan. A Pug Like Percy has shifted 10,000; Lynne Barrett-Lee’s Able Seacat Simon (“the fictional reimagining of Able Seacat Simon’s adventures and heroics in dangerous wartime seas”) almost as many. Sheila Jeffries’ Timba Comes Home (“two black kittens against the world is the pact they make when they are abandoned in a ditch”) is padding towards similar popularity, with 8,000 copies finding a home.The world’s going to hell in a handcart... if there’s a book out there to raise a smile, grab it with both hands. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2017-10-12 00:00:00 UTC ]