Book Recommendations, Reviews and Author Interviews from All-Creatures.org

My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me By Caleb Carr

PUBLISHER: Little, Brown and Company

SEVERAL REVIEWS

REVIEWS

"I've had cats living with me off and on for over 30 years. I consider myself observant and attentive to their needs. This author brings those traits to a new level. Some might say he makes unprovable assumptions about what Masha (his beloved monster) is communicating. Still, in the week since I started reading his memoir I am relating differently to my beloved monster 'Priscilla.. Even if you are not a cat person, Mr. Carr is devoted to his companion in ways I find inspiring."
~ Post Animal Use World Project PAUW

"Devastating and beautiful, by turns a fascinating book of animal psychology and a personal memoir of unrelenting trauma, it dares us to take a journey into love and pain…This is a tale of time and mortality and the link we share with the constant flux of the natural world…Written in poetic, mournful, and delicate prose, My Beloved Monster is a love story and a requiem."
~ The Wall Street Journal

“The most brilliant feline portrait in literary history.”
~ People Magazine (Book of the Week)

"Excellent…Worth the emotional investment, and the tissues you will need by the end, to spend time with a writer and cat duo as extraordinary as Masha and Carr.”
~ Washington Post Book World

“My Beloved Monster is a loving and lovely, lay-it-all-on-the-line explication of one man’s fierce attachment.”
~ The New York Times

“Carr writes about cats with a tender vividness that might make you see your own pets through new eyes."
~ Los Angeles Times

“Within pages of starting this moving book, connoisseurs of fine prose may find themselves gasping with delight, as will cat lovers…One of the most powerful and beautiful grief narratives ever written, including all the memoirs about people.”
~ Kirkus Reviews

“In writing that is as beautiful as it is unguarded, Caleb Carr tells the surprising and deeply affecting story of life with his remarkable cat Masha. It’s a book that will upend your assumptions about love, pain, commitment, cats, and probably the author himself. The whole experience, as a reader, is one I could not have imagined and roundly recommend.”
~ Mary Roach, Author of FUZZ

"Lively and moving....Even readers without their own furry friend will be moved."
~ Publishers Weekly

"A love story of the best, most ethereal kind...Tears will flow, and they will be warranted."
~ Booklist

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Caleb Carr is the critically acclaimed author of The Alienist, The Angel of Darkness, and most recently, Surrender, New York, among many others. He has taught military history at Bard College, and worked extensively in film, television, and the theater. His military and political writings have appeared in numerous magazines and periodicals, among them The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in upstate New York. 

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