Robert Perišić: Hodati kao mačka (A Cat at the End of the World)

The latest addition to my website is Robert Perišić‘s Hodati kao mačka (A Cat at the End of the World). The book opens around 400 BCE. Katia is a slave in Syracuse (Sicily but then a Creek colony ruled by a tyrant). The son of his owner, Pigras, is given a cat, Miu, a rare creature at that time but the cat takes to Katia and not to Pigras, to Pigras’ annoyance. When a fight takes place, Katia and Miu flee. They are encouraged to join an expedition to Issa (present-day Vis)and take Mikro, the donkey in whose stable they have been hiding. We follow their adventures and how Katia grows up A third key character, the wind, comments on the foibles of humans, particularly slavery and the cruel exploitation of animals. It could have been mawkish but Perišić tells a serious, if occasionally whimsical story about how humans behave and how they should behave, no doubt with the Balkan Wars at the back of his mind.

Leave a comment