A Cat Came Back

by Simone Martel

A smart, but unassuming college student embarks on an extraordinary journey of self-discovery after a near-death experience traps her inside the body of a cat. Eliza adapts to her new reality, sustained in her struggle to hold onto her humanity by the love of the one man who knows she’s still herself. But Eliza mutely witnesses the life they lived together fade away. When her lover brings other women into their bed, Eliza confronts the truth about what her love is costing her and what losing hers is costing him. A Cat Came Back is a moving parable about what it means to be a human being and how sometimes letting go can be the price of holding on to who you are.

162 pages, Paperback

Published December 10, 2016

About the author

Simone Martel is the author of a novel, A Cat Came Back, a story collection, Exile's Garden, and a memoir, The Expectant Gardener. Her shorter nonfiction has appeared in Hip Mama, Horticulture, Antigonish and is forthcoming in Sycamore Review. She’s published stories in many journals including Fantastique Unfettered (Pushcart nominated), the Irish magazine, Crannog, the UK's Neon magazine, the Tishman Review (Pushcart nominated) and Arts & Letters (forthcoming). She had two pieces, a story and a memoir, in last winter's Ocotillo Review.

You can read--and comment on!--her stories online at Fresh.Ink and the new French-English quarterly Short Circuit.

After studying English at U.C. Berkeley, Simone operated an organic tomato farm near Stockton. She’s working on a new novel based on that experience. Simone lives with her family in Berkeley where she shares an urban garden with butterflies, dragonflies and the occasional deer.

Reviews

[Shelby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A CAT CAME BACK, by Simone Martel is a book written in a journaling format by a human trapped in an animal body. This human consciousness, limited with others by its lack of words, but also set free by the absence of conventions, experiences a relationship with her partner in a new way. No longer his girlfriend, she becomes a voyeur within a cat's body. She discovers who he really is, a person who is wounded, who knows the art of love, who experiences grief in a unique way.

The cat's voyeurism is at times shocking. Imagine the cat being a bathroom mirror, imagine the cat being a mirror on a bedroom ceiling. Simone Martel pulls it off, with language that at times teeters on the verge of nasty, but she quickly rights course, just in time to be in the presence of children and college professors.

The strength of Martel's writing is in her descriptions of time and place. Her language soars artfully when she describes nature: the fog lifting, the winter sun setting, the bay leading out to Japan, and the delicate plants that glow at night. Her powerful descriptive language puts halos around the moon and brings to imaginary life, withered easter flowers and neglected roses after death. Martel has a powerful connection to nature that beautifies her writing.

Martel's description of older people, however, seems cliched: the skinny old man, the old man who may be lonely, the old people feebly shuffling by in her novel....Cliched writing runs the risk of deadening language. However, Martel 's writing remains poignant and infused with awareness. Her writing is daring, spunky, and unique. She has written an engaging, well-crafted book that readers will enjoy.

Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Simone Martel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars? Honestly, I have no idea how to rate my own novel. I do know that I worked hard on A Cat Came Back and am proud of the result. I'm really posting this review because I want other people on Goodreads to know that the book exists! And I hope people will read it and love it as much as I do (or almost).

[Kaye Lynne Booth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly entertaining story of transformation that offers a few surprises and the occasional chuckle. It's light and quirky and funny. Not your typical body switching out of the bottle tale.

See my full review on my blog: https://wp.me/pVw40-3xC

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can you lose yourself and find yourself at the same time? This is one of the questions raised by this remarkable novel in which a smart, accomplished young woman abruptly discovers that her personality has migrated to the body of her cat. Will anyone recognize that she is in there? What if they don't? How can she hold onto the Her-ness of herself? She can think, but has no ability to communicate with words. With the precision of Kafka, Martel conveys the horror of being trapped in a situation that at times feels like being buried alive. And yet she still feels both love and pain and longs to communicate fully with her boy friend, who at least recognizes that she's there, although no one else does. The pain escalates as she watches him gradually grow away from her, increasingly leading his own life, even bringing new girl friends home. And so her familiar home, beloved garden, and once nourishing relationship with her lover all take on new dimensions, new meanings, and she finds herself increasingly alone. Gradually, she discovers what it is inside of her that makes her who she is—and how she can survive in an entirely new way. This is a surprisingly sexy tale, a story of love pushed to the limits, even with moments of bittersweet humor. A wonderful book and a fascinating read.