Lost Cat by Mary Gaitskill

Can’t resist a cat title !

London Review of Books write….

Mary Gaitskill is our Author of the Month for November. Find out more about her work here.

From the publisher:

‘Last year I lost my cat Gattino. He was very young, at seven months barely an adolescent. He is probably dead but I don’t know for certain.’

So begins Mary Gaitskill’s stunning book-length essay, the closest thing she has written to a memoir. Lost Cat begins with the story of how Gaitskill rescued a stray cat in Italy and brought him to live with her in the US, where he went missing.

As she explores the unexpected trauma of her loss, Gaitskill describes how she came to foster two siblings, Caesar and Natalia, a pair of inner-city children who spent summers and holidays with Gaitskill and her husband. The joys and ultimate difficulties of this relationship leads to a searing examination of loss, love, safety and fear. Gaitskill applies her razor-sharp writing to her most personal subjects yet.

‘Mary Gaitskill’s sharpness and singular honesty are in evidence in Lost Cat.’ – Guardian

‘Gaitskill writes with such authority, such radar-perfect detail.’  – New York Times

‘I really admire how Mary Gaitskill is willing to think about the problematic with complexity and humanity.’ – Eimear McBride

‘Stubbornly original, with a sort of rhythm and fine moments that flatten you out when you don’t expect it.’ – Alice Munro

‘Gaitskill is phenomenally gifted at the metaphysical microcosmic. She makes the abstruse world clearer.’ – Guardian

 

Lost Cat by Mary Gaitskill