Cat and Bird: A Memoir - Paperback

by Kyoko Mori (Author)

A "sweet, touching" memoir about animals, loss, and finding a home in the world by the author of Shizuko's Daughter and Yarn (Kirkus Reviews).

Cat and Bird, a "memoir in animals," is anchored around Kyoko Mori's relationship with the six house cats who defined the major eras of her life as a writer: Dorian, Oscar, Ernest, Algernon, Miles, and Jackson. As she details the rhythms and routines of their days together, she weaves a narrative tapestry out of her past: the deep family tragedy and resilience that marked her childhood in Japan, her move to the American Midwest as a young adult, her experiences as a bird rehabilitator and cat trainer, her marriage and divorce, and the joys and profound heartbreaks that come with pet ownership. Full of razor-sharp observations and generous prose, Cat and Bird whirls into a moving meditation about grief, writing, the imagination, the solitary life, and the wonders of companionship with creatures both domestic and wild.

Author Biography

Kyoko Mori is the author of three nonfiction books (The Dream of Water; Polite Lies; Yarn) and four novels (Shizuko's Daughter; One Bird; Stone Field, True Arrow; Barn Cat). Her essays and stories have appeared in The Best American Essays, Harvard Review, the American Scholar, Colorado Review, Conjunctions, and other venues. She teaches nonfiction writing in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at George Mason University and the Low-Residency MFA Program at Lesley University. She lives in Washington, DC, with her cats, Miles and Jackson.