Book review: ‘Life and Otter Miracles’

Life and Otter Miracles by Hazel Prior. Penguin, 2024. Softcover, 400 pages.

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If you need a little sunshine to warm your soul, pick up a copy of Life and Otter Miracles and let Hazel Prior’s novel work its magic on you.

In this uplifting tale, an otter and a human get rescued at just the right moment. It starts when a young woman with a chronic pain condition comes across an abandoned baby otter while taking a walk near her home in rural southwest England.

After taking the otter to an otter sanctuary, she becomes involved in helping prepare the small animal for release back into the wild and also starts volunteering there. As the story progresses, readers are drawn into life at the sanctuary, as well as into the lives of the staff and other volunteers.

Hazel Prior (a bestselling author known for her novels about an older woman whose life is transformed through her love of penguins) has written a lovely tale that examines not only how otters live and thrive but also how humans, under the right circumstances and in the right company, can do the same.

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Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.