The Writer's Cats

From the bestselling author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog comes this delightful tale that pays tribute to Japanese philosophy and our feline friends.

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 cats 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.