The film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats was released on Dec. 20. Its less-than-stellar reviews kept audiences away—but one certainly can’t blame cats themselves for its failure. The pets’ enduring appeal has inspired countless books over the years—from Cats’ poetic inspiration, T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, to Dr. Seuss’ classic kids’ story The Cat in the Hat to Rita Mae Brown’s Mrs. Murphy mysteries, in which the titular feline helps solve crimes. Here are three more offbeat contributions to the kitty-canon which Kirkus Indie reviewed in the past year:
In Nick Korolev’s SF novel The Cat Who Fell to Earth, an alien named Kedi M’Tschaka, whose features look much like a cat’s, becomes entangled in an ecologically tinged, interstellar conspiracy. There’s plenty here that will appeal to cat aficionados—particularly those who are also fans of classic science fiction: “The author’s tone strikes some comic notes—allergies to cats recur, for instance—and fans will appreciate shoutouts to Larry Niven’s feline star-warriors, the Kzinti.”
Five Cats of Hamburg by Davies McGinnis tells the tale of Catrin “Cat” Kieffer, a Welsh German teenage spy in 1933 who rescues the pets of Jewish families that can no longer care for them. Kirkus’ reviewer calls the book “engrossing,” noting that the protagonist “displays strength as a maternal figure to a feline mother and her four kittens, for whom Cat cares deeply.”
Wendelin Gray’s Kumori and the Lucky Cat was named one of the Best Indie Books of 2019. In a future dystopia, cubicle worker Kumori Ando has “a cat figurine a few inches high” named Lucky Cat, which sometimes comes alive and talks to her—and also has the power to grow to Godzilla-like proportions. Kirkus calls the novel an “absorbing, well-written blend of SF, surrealism, and Japanese magical-girl fantasy.”
David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.
