The Writer’s Cats
By Muriel Barbery and Maria Guitart
()
About this ebook
From the best-selling author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog comes this delightful, delicate tale that pays tribute to the poetry of the everyday, to Japanese philosophy, and to the ingenuity and sardonic humor of cats.
What a mysterious, confounding thing is a writer! Yet, spend a little time with the writer’s cats and one might just understand her better.
Muriel Barbery, via her feline friends and co-conspirators, takes readers into her atelier, offering them a behind-the-scenes peek into her process and problems, joys and disappointments. The tale is told from the perspective of one of the writer’s four cats, Kirin, who, together with her cohort, may or may not be a reliable narrator. There’s Ocha, the leader of the gang, a tough guy with a soft heart; the bandy-legged and affectionate Mizu, Ocha’s sister; the phlegmatic and refined Petrus, lover of flowers; and finally, pretty Kirin, narrator of this bewitching story.
A superb, funny, and touching text for writers, readers, fans of Muriel Barbery’s best-selling novels, and cat lovers.
Muriel Barbery
Muriel Barbery is the author of six previous novels, including the IMPAC-shortlisted, multimillion-copy bestseller The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Published in France in 2006 and in the UK in 2008, the novel was translated in 44 countries, selling more than 10 million copies worldwide, and was described by Le Figaro as ‘the publishing phenomenon of the decade’. Barbery has lived in Kyoto, Amsterdam and Paris and now lives in the French countryside.
Read more from Muriel Barbery
The Elegance of the Hedgehog Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Single Rose Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Single Rose Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Gourmet Rhapsody Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Writer's Cats Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Strange Country Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Writer's Cats Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Hour of Fervor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Writer’s Cats
Related ebooks
Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Cold Comfort Farm Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Adrian Mole, The Early Years: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾ and The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Death Catchers Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Infinite Tides Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Butcher's Hook Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wild Geese Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Beautiful Truth: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unknown Woman of the Seine: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYou Are A Ghost. (Sign Here Please): You Are Dead., #2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Once on a Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Strange Country Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Birth Marks: A Hannah Wolfe Crime Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Book of Fate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith (National Book Award Finalist) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Geographies of the Heart Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Year in the Merde Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Prince Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld (Trivia-On-Books) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLet's Kill Uncle: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cooperstown: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Last Leaves Falling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fur Person [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Electric Hotel: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms: Magic, Mystery, & a Very Strange Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wild Birds Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mrs. Dalloway (annotated): The Virginia Woolf Library Annotated Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is Where I Leave You: A Novel by Jonathan Tropper (Trivia-On-Books) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Humor & Satire For You
Love and Other Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5101 Fun Personality Quizzes: Who Are You . . . Really?! Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best F*cking Activity Book Ever: Irreverent (and Slightly Vulgar) Activities for Adults Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Big Swiss: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Swamp Story: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mindful As F*ck: 100 Simple Exercises to Let That Sh*t Go! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar...: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Soulmate Equation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anxious People: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Best Joke Book (Period): Hundreds of the Funniest, Silliest, Most Ridiculous Jokes Ever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Britt-Marie Was Here: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Favorite Half-Night Stand Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Go the F**k to Sleep Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 2,548 Wittiest Things Anybody Ever Said Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tidy the F*ck Up: The American Art of Organizing Your Sh*t Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Dies at the End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In a Holidaze Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Writer’s Cats
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Writer’s Cats - Muriel Barbery
ALSO BY Muriel Barbery
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Gourmet Rhapsody
The Life of Elves
A Strange Country
A Single Rose
The Writer’s Cats
To my Pepito
To Karole Armitage
To my family
To Matilda and Aleix,
stay wild and keep on smiling
catFirst of all, let me make one thing clear: we like our writer. She’s kind. She never forgets when it’s time for our meal. She doesn’t scream when she sees a dead mouse. She tosses bottle corks to us (our favorite game at aperitif time) while she’s drinking wine (which is not infrequent). She takes us to the vet the minute we fart out of tune. We really do like her.
But enough is enough.
I’ll tell you straight: without us, our writer would not be the writer she is. I don’t know if she’d be worse or better, but she’d be different, that’s all. Why? Because even if we can’t speak, we are peerless literary advisors.
How can a cat claim to be a literary advisor?
you might wonder (and rightfully so). I shall explain.
But first allow me to introduce our tribe. We are four Chartreux cats, which means we have gray fur and orange eyes. When our writer’s best friend saw us for the first time, he said, "They