Cat's Pilgrimage

by Marilyn Bowering

Fourteen-year-old Cathreen is at a turning ahead of her is more of the path that has taken her to a lake at a deserted scout camp where a girl is bullied and left to drown; behind her is the dull existence she leads with her mother in a small Vancouver Island town. But long before Cathreen there is the story of the three lost stones, fallen from Lucifer’s crown—a story in which her father’s family in Glastonbury has played its part. When Cathreen flees to England to find her father, she steps across a boundary into a landscape where good and evil, justice, vengeance and enduring love vie for prime place in the human heart. It is here she must make her choice. The Utopian community of Summerwood, where she finds refuge, inhabits a strange ground where contemporary events brush up against mythology, a place populated by characters who ultimately reveal themselves to be not only the rag-tag collection of lost souls they seem, but also players in stark and mysterious drama. There’s Nick, the environmentalist, armed with a dream; Merry, his friend, who holds the key to love and forgiveness in a puzzle of changed identity decades old; Galt, risen from the bog—half-monster, half human, devoted to his “Master”; and “Pam,” the blonde, buxom beach babe he has seen on TV. Comedy and tragedy take turns as Cathreen searches for her father, and her father, Jag, attempts to control the chaos he has let loose. Watching over them is Cutthroat, the cat, whose own attempt to find happiness is the engine of the tale. Like Visible Worlds , Marilyn Bowering’s acclaimed previous novel, this is a story intricately woven, a magical, multi-layered page-turner that will appeal to lovers of contemporary literary fiction and fantasy.

*
“A thing of beauty, a rich act of the imagination that alternately dazzles, puzzles and thrills. To read it, her first novel since her Orange Prize shortlisted bestseller Visible Worlds, is to be reminded both of the sheer power of fiction, and of just how pedestrian so much of contemporary fiction has become.
When was the last time you were surprised – genuinely, deeply surprised -- by a novel? It's been a while. Cat's Pilgrimage surprises at every turn. …[It is] a heady blending of myth, legend, folklore and genres [that] succeeds because it is simultaneously rooted in realism and the imagination, while underscored by a fundamental humanity.
In Cat's Pilgrimage, as in the best magic realism, anything can happen and does. Nothing is off limits to Bowering's imagination. It's a delicate balancing act, to successfully root the fantastic in the pedestrian, and Bowering succeeds marvelously.”
— Robert Wiersema, Ottawa Citizen

Genres: Fiction

299 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

MARILYN BOWERING’s first novel, To All Appearances A Lady, was a New York Times Notable Book. Her second novel, Visible Worlds, was short-listed for the prestigious Orange Prize, nominated for the Dublin IMPAC Prize, and awarded the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Visible Worlds was praised by The Independent as “a tour de force … a wonderful piece of storytelling” and by The New York Times Book Review as “a vast, sprawling feast of a book.” Her novel What it Takes to Be Human was praised by The Globe and Mail as “a great novel… [Bowering] does not seek moments to be brilliant: those moments just arrive.” A new novel, The Unfinished World, was published in late 2025. Bill Gaston, author of Juliet Was a Surprise and The World, called The Unfinished World "a beautiful, insightful novel that performs a remarkable trick with history, time, and memory, a brilliant interweaving that is both teasingly cerebral as well as richly heartfelt.”

More Richly in Earth, part memoir and part literary investigation of a 17th century female Scottish Gaelic bard, was published by McGill Queen’s Press in 2024 and was long-listed for the Saltire Prize. The Scottish Gaelic writer Maoilios Caimbeul called it "a major work."

Marilyn Bowering is also an award-winning poet and librettist. Jan Zwicky says of Bowering, Her brilliant imagistic gift is always offered in service to the mystery of insight, the other invisible worlds gathered close in this one. Bowering’s poetry includes Human Bodies: Collected Poems 1987-1999, Green, an interplay of form and conversations and Soul Mouth, a book of story and memoir poems. With Threshold (photographs by Xan Shian), Marilyn Bowering extends the conversation to an encounter with a 17th century female Scottish Gaelic bard. Of What Is Long Past Occurs in Full Light (illustrations by Ken Laidlaw), Jan Zwicky comments, Despite her unflinching acknowledgement of the horrors humans visit on themselves and others, her vision is grounded in the subtle integrity of love. A new book of poetry, Frayed Linens, will be published in November 2025.

Marilyn Bowering has received many poetry prizes including the Ruth and David Lampe Award, the Gwen MacEwen Poetry prize, the Pat Lowther Prize, the Dorothy Livesay Prize, several National Magazine Awards, two nominations for the Governor General’s award, and shortlisting for the Prix Italia and the Sony Award. An opera, Marilyn Forever (composer Gavin Bryars), has received production premieres (2013-2022) in Victoria, BC; Long Beach, Ca.; Adelaide, Australia; Vienna, Austria; Oxford and Glasgow, UK; and Hagen and Saarbrücken, Germany. Bowering’s work has been translated into a number of languages including Spanish, Finnish, German, Romanian, Russian, and Punjabi.
Marilyn Bowering was born in Winnipeg and grew up in Victoria, BC. She has lived in various parts of Canada and in Greece, Scotland and Spain and now makes her home on Vancouver Island.

Reviews

[Mary Elizabeth Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing is exceptional. The story is decidedly strange, and it does jump around constantly with aspects of the tale being told by various characters including cats and a bog man. Cathreen is an unusually composed and mature young teen who seems to have left most of her "child" behind.

[Emery Giiwenh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super duper strange; I've reread this many times.