NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An enchanting debut novel about a young woman whose growing obsession with her boyfriend’s cat opens new possibilities for her life'''but not without threatening to unravel it.
‘Abound in wit and restraint, Kitten explores the funny yet unsettling complexities of modern love. . . . A fearless debut!’—Weike Wang, author of Chemistry
‘Yu’s novel is both a kind of Gen Z parable of existential nihilism and a psychologically deft portrait of mother-daughter trauma. . . . This spiky debut refuses to be boxed in.’—Kirkus Reviews
LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION’S FIRST NOVEL PRIZE • A BUSTLE AND MARIE CLAIRE BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH • A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR: Harper’s Bazaar, Our Culture, Debutiful, Electric Lit, The Millions
Katie is far from home, fresh out of college, and desperate to skirt the demands of adult life. It doesn’t help that she’s no longer speaking to her mother. Or that she owes her roommate and closest friend months of rent money. Luckily, her self-assured, generous boyfriend James seems happy to make decisions for them both. When James takes Katie on vacation to his family’s seaside house, he brings Silver, his childhood cat, and Katie discovers a sudden, strange, and giddy connection.
Silver doesn’t mind that Katie can’t seem to get a job, hold her own at dinner parties, or make amends with her mother. Silver, who gets to lie around all day, misbehave spectacularly, act cute, be gross, and still get fed, seems to have the life Katie increasingly longs for. Soon enough, they’re inseparable, and something inside Katie begins to crack open . . . or maybe just crack.
Because if Katie has learned anything from her mother, it’s that devotion comes at a price. As Katie's affection for Silver deepens, her other relationships begin to falter, until she’s forced to confront what she really desires from life—and what she might have to risk to get it.
Darkly playful, wryly observant, and unexpectedly heartfelt, this debut from an irresistible new voice in fiction is a timeless reckoning with the uncertainty of becoming a person in an age that is as disorienting and lonely as it is full of hope and promise.
Genre: Literary Fiction
‘Abound in wit and restraint, Kitten explores the funny yet unsettling complexities of modern love. . . . A fearless debut!’—Weike Wang, author of Chemistry
‘Yu’s novel is both a kind of Gen Z parable of existential nihilism and a psychologically deft portrait of mother-daughter trauma. . . . This spiky debut refuses to be boxed in.’—Kirkus Reviews
LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION’S FIRST NOVEL PRIZE • A BUSTLE AND MARIE CLAIRE BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH • A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR: Harper’s Bazaar, Our Culture, Debutiful, Electric Lit, The Millions
Katie is far from home, fresh out of college, and desperate to skirt the demands of adult life. It doesn’t help that she’s no longer speaking to her mother. Or that she owes her roommate and closest friend months of rent money. Luckily, her self-assured, generous boyfriend James seems happy to make decisions for them both. When James takes Katie on vacation to his family’s seaside house, he brings Silver, his childhood cat, and Katie discovers a sudden, strange, and giddy connection.
Silver doesn’t mind that Katie can’t seem to get a job, hold her own at dinner parties, or make amends with her mother. Silver, who gets to lie around all day, misbehave spectacularly, act cute, be gross, and still get fed, seems to have the life Katie increasingly longs for. Soon enough, they’re inseparable, and something inside Katie begins to crack open . . . or maybe just crack.
Because if Katie has learned anything from her mother, it’s that devotion comes at a price. As Katie's affection for Silver deepens, her other relationships begin to falter, until she’s forced to confront what she really desires from life—and what she might have to risk to get it.
Darkly playful, wryly observant, and unexpectedly heartfelt, this debut from an irresistible new voice in fiction is a timeless reckoning with the uncertainty of becoming a person in an age that is as disorienting and lonely as it is full of hope and promise.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"The moment you've finished this spellbinding story, it will play on your mind for days." - Ore Agbaje-Williams
"Enigmatic and entrancing, like burying your nose in the plume of a cat's neck." - Celina Baljeet Basra
"A fresh, funny, and totally bewitching love story that asks profound questions about attachment and how to belong to one another and to ourselves . . . Kitten will wind its way around your heart." - Gina Chung
"Exquisitely constructed . . . I was completely unable to resist reading it in one sitting." - Jennifer Croft
"Even the most loyal dog person will be charmed by Yu's hilarious, wry, and moving novel about the pleasure and pain of realizing you can be and do whatever you want." - Jean Kyoung Frazier
"Soft and sharp, totally in control, utterly deranged . . . I lapped it up." - Kiran Millwood Hargrave
"As tender and brutal as a kiss to the most wounded part of yourself . . . Yu's eye for friction and chaos should be studied." - Ruth Madievsky
"Strange, playful, and intimate . . . I didn't want it to end." - Lucy Rose
"Abound in wit and restraint, Kitten explores the funny yet unsettling complexities of modern love. . . . A fearless debut!" - Weike Wang
"An endearing meditation . . . Kitten will leave you aching." - Alice Evelyn Yang
"Enigmatic and entrancing, like burying your nose in the plume of a cat's neck." - Celina Baljeet Basra
"A fresh, funny, and totally bewitching love story that asks profound questions about attachment and how to belong to one another and to ourselves . . . Kitten will wind its way around your heart." - Gina Chung
"Exquisitely constructed . . . I was completely unable to resist reading it in one sitting." - Jennifer Croft
"Even the most loyal dog person will be charmed by Yu's hilarious, wry, and moving novel about the pleasure and pain of realizing you can be and do whatever you want." - Jean Kyoung Frazier
"Soft and sharp, totally in control, utterly deranged . . . I lapped it up." - Kiran Millwood Hargrave
"As tender and brutal as a kiss to the most wounded part of yourself . . . Yu's eye for friction and chaos should be studied." - Ruth Madievsky
"Strange, playful, and intimate . . . I didn't want it to end." - Lucy Rose
"Abound in wit and restraint, Kitten explores the funny yet unsettling complexities of modern love. . . . A fearless debut!" - Weike Wang
"An endearing meditation . . . Kitten will leave you aching." - Alice Evelyn Yang
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Used availability for Stacey Yu's Kitten