Clever, charming and full of life ... Like the best jazz, 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas is a marvel of the unexpected, a buoyant, swinging tale of interwoven destinies that Marie-Helene Bertino tells with verve, wit, and warmth. I loved it. -- Maggie Shipstead, author of SEATING ARRANGEMENTS Marie-Helene Bertino bops across Philadelphia like an alley cat on the run, energetic and wild. Her sentences are sharp and surprising, and her wonderful story is full of heart. There is funny poetry in the sound of loneliness, and Bertino has found it. -- Emma Straub, author of THE VACATIONERS and LAURA LAMONT'S LIFE IN PICTURES 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas is as winning and funny as the nine year-old at its heart, and I love it for the way its protagonists turn their back on their city's cruddiness and their own losses to proclaim their happiness to be in this world. They offer wryness as the antidote to self-pity and benevolence as the antidote to isolation, and they demonstrate how even the most forsaken can turn themselves into a warm, dry house. -- Jim Shepard, National Book Award shortlisted author of LIKE YOU'D UNDERSTAND, ANYWAY Sympathetic characters and an evocative setting combine in a story that takes some most unexpected turns. It's thrilling to see bravery reminiscent of short story-telling translate into a novel. The denouement had me in tears, in stitches and then doing a double take at an ending that seems to come out of nowhere. -- Claire King, author of THE NIGHT RAINBOW 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas is a recipe box full of wonders. With a wildly entertaining cast of characters, Marie-Helene Bertino soars through her native city of Philadelphia, zeroing in with great beauty, wit, skill and love on the exact moments in time that change our lives forever. -- Hannah Tinti, author of THE GOOD THIEF Once you enter the imagination of Marie-Helene Bertino-a world as weird as it is warm-you will not want to leave. Each sentence is a pop-up box: first delightful for its sweet music, then profound with the shock of truth. This is a dazzling book. -- Eleanor Henderson, author of TEN THOUSAND SAINTS 2 A.M. at the Cat's Pajamas won me over heart and soul. With Madeline Altimari, a nine year old aspiring jazz singer with a wonderful talent for cursing, Bertino has created one of the most winning and wonderful characters I've met in a long time. Read this book to see a debut author doing something really special, crafting a story where human kindness meets up with an inhospitable world and real magic happens in the aftermath. -- Kevin Wilson, author of THE FAMILY FANG 2 A.M at The Cat's Pajamas is beautiful, alive, and moving. Marie-Helene Bertino has a mesmerising way with words. The characters seem to me, united by the theme of loneliness, but the passage of one day and their interwoven stories bring hope. Touching and very funny, it is one of those books that stays in your head long after you've finished it, like a song. -- Sara Crowe, author of CAMPARI FOR BREAKFAST A torch song to the power of jazz, determination and serendipity ... Bertino's carefully crafted verbal cadence gives Philadelphia a thumping heartbeat that captures the feel of the jazz medium perfectly. Her characters' lives combine, diverge and riff off of each other like solos traded between musicians in a well-oiled jazz ensemble ... Bertino does an excellent job of showing that jazz and all its varied forms remain as vibrant and descriptive of the human experience today as ever ... Balancing whimsy and reality is clearly one of Bertino's gifts ... [With] her instinct for pushing the boundaries of probability into the realm of the small miracle ... Bertino never puts any of the magic out of the reach of everyday people. Funny and wise, this first novel will leave readers with smiles on their faces and a song in their hearts - something with a little swing to it, naturally. Shelf Awareness Bertino's characters are spot-on, and her special brand of humor brings each one to life in this fresh and charming tale. Booklist
