My Beloved Monster

An instant New York Times bestseller, this is an unforgettable story about a cat, love and loss from a highly acclaimed writerCaleb Carr lived with cats ever since he was a young boy. He grew up in a turbulent household - where famous Beat poets, artists and addicts came and went - and his steadiest companions were pets. Since then, he had many feline companions, with relationships that have outlasted most of his human ones. But only after building a three-story home in rural, upstate New York did he encounter someone extraordinary- Masha, a Siberian Forest cat who had been abandoned as a kitten and was languishing in a shelter. She had hissed and fought off all previous carers and potential adopters, but somehow, she chose him.For the seventeen years that followed, Caleb and Masha were inseparable. Masha ruled the house and the dangerous wilderness surrounding it. When she was hurt, only Caleb could help her. When he suffered long-standing physical ailments, Masha knew what to do. Caleb learned to decode much of Masha's inner life but their bond went far beyond owner and pet. Inspiring, heart-breaking and life-affirming, this is a love story like no other.

Exquisite… A lyrical double biography of man and cat and a wider philosophical inquiry... A beautiful book, one of the finest meditations on animal companionship that I have ever read -- Kathryn Hughes Guardian
Superb. Carr, one of the most clear-sighted and relentlessly honest observers of the age, turns his terrifying attention to the mysterious, agonising and redemptive business of love. It’s not just a book about a cat. Carr spares neither himself nor his readers. This is the real thing... You’ll never be the same again -- Charles Foster, author of CRY OF THE WILD
A moving account… a warm, heavy love letter to Masha and her feline predecessors… Carr knows he must not over-identify with Masha yet the parallels are there — and poignantly told -- Francesca Angelini Sunday Times
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
Carr wasn’t in need of redeeming in his final years, but My Beloved Monster is nonetheless an act of redemption. It gives specific life, and teeth and claws, to that old cliché about how we don’t rescue animals; they rescue us Los Angeles Times
The most brilliant feline portrait in literary history People Magazine
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
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
A profound story of mortality, grief and love... My Beloved Monster will be compared with JR Ackerley’s classic My Dog Tulip (1956), but to my mind Carr tells a more extraordinary tale -- John Gray New Statesman
May be the most effusive paean to cat love ever written -- Nick Duerden Guardian

Caleb Carr was the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of The Alienist, The Angel of Darkness and other novels. He held a degree in military and diplomatic history and taught at Bard College.

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