Description

‘A brave process of healing and self reconstruction’ Observer

‘Simply one of the best writers working today. Here’s to family, to glamour, and to love’ Nell Frizzell, author of The Panic Years

I looked around at my flat, at the woodchip wallpaper and scuffed furniture, and realised that I did have a life after all. What it didn’t have in it was a cat.

When Rhiannon fell in love with, and eventually married her flatmate, she imagined they might one day move on. But this is London in the age of generation rent, and so they share their home with a succession of friends and strangers while saving for a life less makeshift. The desire for a baby is never far from the surface, but can she be sure that she will ever be free of the anxiety she has experienced since an attack in the street one night? And after a childhood spent caring for her autistic brother does she really want to devote herself to motherhood?

Moving through the seasons over the course of lockdown, The Year of the Cat nimbly charts the way a kitten called Mackerel walked into Rhiannon’s home and heart, and taught her to face down her fears and appreciate quite how much love she had to offer.

‘A superbly written, special book’ Olivia Sudjic, author of Asylum Road

‘Beautifully captures that liminal period before any life-changing decision’ New Statesman

Publisher Review

The most beautiful paragraphs in The Year of the Cat remind me what a rare gift Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett possesses: expansive compassion, empathy and warmth, but a scalpel precision with words. Memories are conjured so headily it feels, to the reader, less like reading than experiencing deja vu -- Emma Forrest, author of Busy Being Free A nuanced calibration of care, desire, trauma and anxiety that made me feel so energised. A superbly written, special book -- Olivia Sudjic, author of Asylum Road Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is simply one of the best writers working today. She conjures a heady, terrifying time in beautiful detail. Here's to family, to glamour, and to love -- Nell Frizzell, author of The Panic Years Such a moving, unique and elegant book, examining mental health, motherhood, creativity, love, life, youth, femininity, family and friendship. But above all, Cosslett takes her place in a long history of genius writers in the meowmoir genre by celebrating her strong bond with a true hero -- Mackerel the cat. I loved this book, and if you have a heart, you will, too. -- Nick Bradley, author of The Cat and the City The Year of the Cat is a tender and wise meditation on trauma and the fragmentation of memory. Weaving together a history of women and their feline companions, Cosslett charts the emergence of a lasting love, while grappling with deeper anxieties: what it means to be a carer, and a mother, in precarious times. With her signature wit and radiant prose, Cosslett has produced a remarkable work, one that speaks for her generation -- Jessica Cornwell, author of Birth Notes