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Readers returning to the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul for a follow-up visit with Nurse Chitose and Dr. Nikké will find another dose of catnip tea in the form of four more healing stories in which cats, or in one case cat behavior – caterwauling, to be specific, are prescribed as treatment to help troubled humans understand themselves and connect with others.

While the book can be read as a stand-alone, several characters and cats, as well as the overarching mystery and magic that surrounds the clinic, appear in earlier books, so the stories might be more enjoyable if one has read the previous books.

Many thanks to BookBrowse, NetGalley and Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House, for making this delightful book available to read ahead of publication.

MAGNIFICENT! The Son of Nobody, by Yann Martel, is a brilliant retelling of the Trojan war from the point of view of a common foot soldier fighting with the Greeks against the Trojans. Two tragic tales are told in parallel, literally one on top of the other. One story is the song of Psoas of Midea, son of nobody. The second narrative is that of Harlow Donne, a Classics scholar from Canada, who authors his own tragic tale in the footnotes of his translation of Psoas’ epic poem. This beautifully crafted novel captures what is universal to the human experience, that across time and regardless of status, love, longing and loss are the same for everyone, and that the life story of one low-born is no less of a heroic journey than that of one high-born.

Enough supplemental information on Greek mythology and Homer’s Iliad is included in the footnotes for the reader to enjoy the story. However, if your memory of them is a little dusty, a quick refresher will certainly enhance your enjoyment. Read slowly and reflectively. This is a novel that should be savored.

Thanks to BookBrowse and W.W. Norton & Company for the advance reading copy of this book.