Courtney Gustafson – författare

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERPeople kept asking: Why would you have cats that don’t love you back?The morning after Courtney Gustafson moved into an old house in the Poets Square neighbourhood of Tucson, Arizona, she noticed tiny pawprints all over her driveway. They were the first evidence of a colony of feral cats who would, in time, become part of her family and help pierce a personal darkness she’d wrestled with for much of her life.Beebs was the first cat to appear, allowing herself to be petted in the driveway. And then came so many others. There was Monkey, the hissing, dark-blotched calico, and Reverse Monkey, her timid, white-blotched opposite. There were Sad Boy and Lola, the inseparable pair who made their way across the internet and into strangers’ wedding vows. There was the sweet, serene Dr. Big Butt, who brought lessons about grief. And there was Goldie, the tiny king of Poets Square: sick, skinny, but completely unafraid. These cats – and many, many others – would expand her world spectacularly.Poets Square is a love letter to community in a broken society, told through the cats Courtney meets in dark alleys, neglected homes and her own driveway; cats she cherishes and must sometimes let go. Above all, she explores what her encounters with feral cats can teach us about care, connectedness and the powerof hope.‘Cats are mystical beings, bridging the spiritual and the tangible. Courtney Gustafson’s Poet Square is a book that helps us connect to this spiritual world, offering a bridge to the ethereal’ Ai Weiwei‘Courtney Gustafson writes with uncommon grace about the castoff, the abandoned, the invisible. This book should be read and treasured for its ability to make the reader more human and humane’ Lauren Slater, author of Blue Dreams‘Deftly intertwined with the individual stories of all these cats is her own story of how she got there … She is clear-eyed about the deviation of her life’ Esther Walker, The Spike

Previously published as Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty CatsTHE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERPeople kept asking: Why would you have cats that don’t love you back?The morning after Courtney Gustafson moved into an old house in the Poets Square neighbourhood of Tucson, Arizona, she noticed tiny pawprints all over her driveway. They were the first evidence of a colony of feral cats, who, to her surprise, would expand her world spectacularly.Beebs was the first to appear. Then there was Monkey, the dark-blotched ‘scheming little gremlin’ calico, and Reverse Monkey, her timid, white-blotched opposite. There were Sad Boy and Lola, the inseparable pair who made their way across the internet and into strangers’ wedding vows. And there was Goldie, the tiny king of Poets Square: sick, skinny, but completely fearless.Poets Square is a love letter to community in a broken society, told through the cats Courtney meets in dark alleys, neglected homes and her own driveway; cats she cherishes and must sometimes let go. Above all, it explores what loving these feral creatures, in all their noise and need, can teach us about care, connectedness and the power of hope.‘Cats are mystical beings, bridging the spiritual and the tangible. Courtney Gustafson’s Poet Square is a book that helps us connect to this spiritual world, offering a bridge to the ethereal’ Ai Weiwei‘Courtney Gustafson writes with uncommon grace about the castoff, the abandoned, the invisible. This book should be read and treasured for its ability to make the reader more human and humane’ Lauren Slater, author of Blue Dreams‘Deftly intertwined with the individual stories of all these cats is her own story of how she got there … She is clear-eyed about the deviation of her life’ Esther Walker, The Spike

The author shows how taking care of the feral cats in her Poets Square neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona, reshaped her understanding of empathy, resilience, and the healing power of wholly showing up for something outside yourself.

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERPeople kept asking: Why would you have cats that don’t love you back?The morning after Courtney Gustafson moved into an old house in the Poets Square neighbourhood of Tucson, Arizona, she noticed tiny pawprints all over her driveway. They were the first evidence of a colony of feral cats, who, to her surprise, would expand her world spectacularly.Beebs was the first to appear. Then there was Monkey, the dark-blotched ‘scheming little gremlin’ calico, and Reverse Monkey, her timid, white-blotched opposite. There were Sad Boy and Lola, the inseparable pair who made their way across the internet and into strangers’ wedding vows. And there was Goldie, the tiny king of Poets Square: sick, skinny, but completely fearless.Poets Square is a love letter to community in a broken society, told through the cats Courtney meets in dark alleys, neglected homes and her own driveway; cats she cherishes and must sometimes let go. Above all, it explores what loving these feral creatures, in all their noise and need, can teach us about care, connectedness and the power of hope.‘Cats are mystical beings, bridging the spiritual and the tangible. Courtney Gustafson’s Poet Square is a book that helps us connect to this spiritual world, offering a bridge to the ethereal’ Ai Weiwei‘Courtney Gustafson writes with uncommon grace about the castoff, the abandoned, the invisible. This book should be read and treasured for its ability to make the reader more human and humane’ Lauren Slater, author of Blue Dreams‘Deftly intertwined with the individual stories of all these cats is her own story of how she got there … She is clear-eyed about the deviation of her life’ Esther Walker, The SpikePreviously published as Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats

Eine nach der anderen tauchen sie auf, von einem Tag auf den nächsten. Und dann sind sie plötzlich überall: Goldie, Monkey und Rihanna, Dr. Big Butt, Sad Boy und Co. Dreißig streunende Katzen, die um ihr Überleben kämpfen und durch ihre schiere Präsenz einfordern, sich um sie zu kümmern. Einem die Möglichkeit nehmen, wegzuschauen. In ihrem herzerwärmenden und originellen literarischen Memoir erzählt Courtney Gustafson, wie eine Wahlfamilie streunender Katzen ihr Leben komplett auf den Kopf stellte. Persönliche Erfahrungen mit gesellschaftlichen Beobachtungen verbindend, schreibt sie über Fürsorge und Empathie, Mental Health und Misogynie, Tierschutz und Aktivismus – und darüber, wie eine soziale Gemeinschaft im digitalen Raum zum auffangenden Sicherheitsnetz werden kann. Ein zugleich leichtes und ernstes Buch darüber, was wir von Katzen über das Leben im Kapitalismus lernen können.