In this household, the cat is king of the castle!

When the opera diva Madame SoSo gets laryngitis, her singing cat Alma fills in for her.

A sassy cat from the back alleys of Paris believes she is quite different to the rest of the rabble. She can do anything she sets her mind to - even if others don't think so. Leaving her cat family behind, she sets off to explore Paris. Cat meets legendary singer Edith Piaf, creates her own stunning designs at a high-fashion atelier and dances with the infamous dancer Josephine Baker and her cheetah. But is this the life she really wants? What about her friends and family?

“A timeless novel about love, loss and village life” from the award-winning Dutch author of The Misfortunates and Problemski Hotel (Aesthetica). Years ago, Madame Verona and her husband built a home for themselves on a hill in a forest above a small village. There they lived in isolation, practicing their music, and chopping wood to see them through the cold winters. When Mr. Verona died, the locals might have expected that the legendary beauty would return to the village, but Madame Verona had enough wood to keep her warm during the years it would take to make a cello—the instrument her husband loved—and in the meantime she had her dogs for company. And then one cold February morning, when the last log has burned, Madame Verona sets off down the village path, with her cello and her memories, knowing that she will have no strength to climb the hill again. Poignant, precise and perfectly structured, this is a story of one woman’s tender and enduring love—as a wife, and as a widow. “An intimate, unsentimental portrayal of European rural life . . . In Verhulst’s landscape, nature is ruthless, amoral and never benign, and human memory a cruel mirage . . . His best sentences are gorgeously resonant.”—The Herald “Aging, bereavement and death are somber themes, yet this novel’s treatment of them is agreeably entertaining . . . this tale of enduring love is often preposterous, sometimes poignant and, above all, consistently charming.”—The Independent

In Catania, the sea cats miss sailing the sea because of the depredations of the Turks. Miaoumé arrives, with the corsair Félix, to recruit a crew of cats in order to sow terror among the Turks. The volunteers learn to sail and fight and experience several adventures. In the Aegean Sea, they meet Innocent, a cat who carries a secret and strategic message to help the Venetians defeat the Turks. The Félix takes Innocent to Ragusa, where they all learn a great historical secret.

The world’s oldest profession is legal in Nevada and Madam: Chronicles of a Nevada Cathouse is a first-hand look into Nevada’s sex-for-money industry. Written by former full-time madam Lora Shaner, this 300-page hardcover provides piercing character studies of the working girls and the men who purchase their services as well as poignant sketches of day-to-day life in a legal brothel.