This book is a partially autobiographical shortish novel, or longish novella, by Czech author Bohumil Hrabal, who, once upon a time, moved into a house in the Bohemian area of Kersko just outside Prague, hoping that he would have peace there in which to write. However he finds the town's wild cat population seeps into his life and thus commences the book's central theme and relationship - that of Hrabal with all the cats that start visiting, then staying in, then breeding in, his Kersko home, despite the regular complaints of his wife "what are we going to do with all these cats!?"
Of course, what he actually does do with the cats is the meat of the story so I won't spoil it here. But be warned - cat lovers expecting a ride as soft and complacently-cattish as this novel will be sorely disappointed, as Hrabal's cat cabal relatively quickly begins a descent into grim, almost Dostoevskian horror and brutality - look out for the mailbag...
I'd happily recommend this book to people who enjoy reading about the nature and character of cats, as this book I think feeds into that kind of metanarrative really interestingly. But if you just want a nice story about a man with lots of cats, don't read past the first chapter of this one - this is not that kind of story. It is, however, once you get past the sheer darkness of its core conflict, a deeply funny and thought-provoking story about life, care, responsibility, and "whatever are we going to do with all these cats!?"
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