The Cat
Young Readers

The Cat

Or, How I Lost Eternity
By
Jutta Richter
“Quite unlike any other work of fabulist fiction that I have read.” —JOYCE CAROL OATES
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Every day Christine’s walk to school takes her past a talking alley cat. And every day the cat’s insights invariably give her something to ponder.

One day her teacher asks the eight-year-old why she is always late for school. Frightened, she reveals the secret of the talking cat. Her punishment: she must write two hundred times, “There are no talking cats, and from now on I will arrive at school on time.” But the cat is real, no matter how many lines Christine writes. And she might just as well leave out the “no”—the headmaster won’t even notice, says the clever cat.

That’s what the cat always says—that life is all about being clever. And always looking out for yourself, first and foremost! But Christine isn’t so sure, and she is a little scared of the cat, too. There must be more to life than self-interest, surely? The cat is spiteful and pitiless. And that’s what Christine doesn’t want to be.

An illustrated modern fable, The Cat is a unique book for both children and adults to enjoy.

ISBN
9781571316769
Publish Date
Pages
72
Dimensions
5.31 × 8.5 × 0.38 in
Weight
6.5 oz
Cover Art

Praise and Prizes

  • “Untimely in the way of a Grimm fairy tale recast by Fran Kafka, The Cat is quite unlike any other work of fabulist fiction that I have read. Clearly, Jutta Richter is a distinctive writer.”

    Joyce Carol Oates

  • “A spare, philosophical story … The edition itself is pretty, hardbound and slender like a book of poems and illustrated with bold drawings in yellow, black and gray that capture the story’s stark sentiments. This is one for the bookshelf, a book to be read and saved and rediscovered in adulthood, when it will be remembered as an early lesson in looking for the universe inside every small thing.”

    Philadelphia Inquirer

  • “Jutta Richter has an uncanny gift for illuminating the weight of small actions; it’s not too much to read the book as an allegory of good and evil in the postmodern world. Rotraut Susanne Berner’s two-color drawings, the slender trim size and the eye-catching printer-board covers confer, appropriately, a smart downtown look.”

    Publishers Weekly

  • “Jutta Richter possesses the enviable gift to capture difficult things, morals, and feelings in pictures that will touch the reader and resonate with him for a long time.”

    The Catholic Children’s and Youth Book Prize (Germany)

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