The Road to Tender Hearts

A darkly comic and warm-hearted novel about an old man on a cross-country mission to reunite with his high school crush — bringing together his adult daughter, two orphaned kids, and a cat who can predict death — by the author of Rabbit Cake and Unlikely Animals.

At sixty-three years old, million-dollar lottery winner PJ Halliday would be the luckiest man in Pondville, Massachusetts, if it weren’t for the tragedies of his life: the sudden death of his eldest daughter and the way his marriage fell apart after that. Since then, PJ spends both his money and his time at the bar, and he probably doesn’t have much time left — he’s had three heart attacks already. But when PJ reads the obituary of his old romantic rival, he realizes his high school sweetheart, Michelle Cobb, is finally single again, and decides he’s going to drive across the country to win her back.

Before PJ can hit the road, tragedy strikes Pondville, leaving PJ the sudden guardian of his estranged brother’s grandchildren. He asks his adult daughter Sophie, adrift in her twenties, to come along to babysit, and there’s one more surprise addition to the roster: Pancakes, a former nursing home therapy cat with a knack for predicting death. This could be the second chance PJ has long hoped for — a fresh shot at love and parenting — but does he have the strength to do both those things again?