A Cat at the End of the World - Robert Perišić
"A deeply profound and beautiful understanding of animal and human behaviours as seen through the results of language, warfare, colonisation, trade and the building of a society"
A Cat at the End of the World reads similar to a bedtime story or a fairy tale. Simple and with a quick but even pace, time melted away and before I knew it, I had read a third in one sitting. I got a solid chunk of time reading as I started reading whilst sitting in Gate 7 at Split airport, waiting for a delayed flight to London Heathrow. They sat us on the plane where we waited about two hours, due to traffic control problems (electrical storms in Southern Europe causing many flights to be delayed), resulting in us being on the plane twice as long as we should have been. Anyway, I was glad to have something I was excited to put my attention to.
I bought the book on one of my final stops in Split before departing for the airport. The city was packed with history and was surprisingly (to me anyway) heavily Roman. I don’t know if it’s because of the Roman influence and architecture or being located on the coast in a heavily tourist-friendly location, but aside from the language and accent, I felt I could have been in the Mediterranean. I say this with full awareness that it sounds ignorant. Croatia has had turbulent years in modern history, only gaining independence from the Social Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991. They celebrated Anti-fascist Struggle Day, a public holiday whilst we were out there (the day of my boyfriend’s sister’s wedding no doubt) on the 22nd of June. So knowing that Croatia has a rich tapestry of history, I ventured to the bookshop to try and find something I could learn from and double as a little souvenir.
It was a lovely bookshop, with sections for English, German and Croatian languages, but I was limited on time so I didn’t get to pour over the shelves in as much detail as I normally would. I almost settled for the one single Croatian history book I could find when I spotted A Cat at the End of the World. The blurb hooked me and I knew I would find it more enjoyable than the dry-sounding history book, which reminded me too much of a school’s textbook. Too many times have I arrogantly chosen the more scholarly-sounding book, glazed over the words without absorbing them, then been racked with guilt that I’ve wasted the money and felt rubbish about my intelligence. I understand now that I need something with narrative. Give me characters I care about, and a human experience of the events and I can do the fact-checking and historical investigation after (8 times out of ten the era will become my new obsession). So with a new acceptance of how I like to learn, I purchased A Cat at the End of the World by Robert Perišič.
Ancient Syracuse, Sicily
As we start the story we have a short introduction from Scatterwind, a “bodiless spirit that effortlessly travels through time and space”, but with only a page and a quarter of the first POV chapter, we don’t have a chance to get to know them (it?) and we are then thrown into an account from Arion, reflecting on his life to a person called Kalia, who we are yet to meet. If I’m honest, I felt a little lost with this first chapter, trying to get my bearings with where and when the setting was, but this could be anything from my little knowledge of the ancient Mediterranean and Adriatic world, to the fact I was in a busy airport occasionally being distracted. Scanning over this first chapter as I write, I feel it would be easier to read now with all the context I gained after finishing the book.
For me, the story started after meeting Kalia, a young slave boy so young and neglected emotionally that other characters couldn’t figure out if he had learning difficulties (I struggle to describe this as it’s such a modern term, especially compared to ancient times). Menda, an older slave woman serving the same family in Syracuse, often worried about Kalia, so she took him under her wing, ensuring he was fed and ready to understand the world. Kalia’s early chapters are simple, and Robert Perišić captures the naivety children have about the world they are living in. The house is Kalia’s world, it doesn’t belong to anyone, it just is. He doesn’t belong to anyone, and there is no question of hierarchy, just acceptance. Menda suspects Kalia is more intelligent than he appears and initiates Kalia learning new skills to prove his value.
Everything changes once we meet the story’s third central character, Miu. In the early 4th century BCE only in Egypt had cats been domesticated. Miu enters the story when a sailor brings her to Syracuse in a bag and sells her to the house owner, Saba. Friendly cats that form an attachment to humans are the “new entertainment for the rich” and are highly valuable if they have come from Egypt. Gifted to his spoilt son Pigras, Miu meets Kalia who is the same age as the son and they form a bond. Pigras can’t bear that he cannot control Miu and that she lives by her own free will. From here the status quo changes and so a series of events change Kalia’s life forever, all because of this new cat. What ensues is the forming of a deep bond between boy and animal as they navigate life and survival together.
The Scatterwind chapters complement the Kalia chapters well. Sometimes they would be musings from a genderless being trying to understand the quirks of humanity and the primal instincts of animals. These chapters occasionally fit into Kalia’s narrative, being nearby following his and Miu’s story.
A Cat At The End of the World didn’t quite scratch the historical itch I had, despite sparking interest in Ancient Syracuse, the colonisation of Issa (now the island of Vis in Croatia). It inspired more digging into the Carthaginian and Syracuse Empires. So with that being said I would recommend this book based on it being a heartwarming read that highlights the innocence and connection between humans and pets, the quite frankly strange habits of humanity, humorously told by a non-human entity, and the story of a boy finding his way in the world, and growing into a man the best way he knows how.
Robert Perišić’s other titles include Our Man In Iraq and No-Signal Area.
What are your thoughts on this review? Do you like historical fiction? In what ways do you like to learn about history? Let’s chat 👇
Thanks for reading,
