The Tygrine Cat by Inbali Iserles

The Tygrine Cat is the story of Mati, a young cat who travels by ship from his distant homeland, and eventually makes his way to the community of stray cats that lives at Cressida Market. Mati only has vague memories of his life before the long journey. He remember his mother urging him on the ship, and he knows there was something he was meant to remember, something about the three pillars of feline wisdom.

After Mati’s arrival, a series of strange things begin to happen at Cressida Market. Many of the cats are quick to blame the newcomer, but the truth is much darker, stranger, and older than that. In fact, the roots of what is happening go back a long, long time.

I really, really enjoyed The Tygrine Cat. Reading it I was reminded of Varjak Paw by S.F. Said, but that’s only natural as both are children’s fantasies featuring a young cat as a hero. But beyond these superficial similarities, they’re each their own thing, and they each have their own atmosphere. I do think, however, that fans of Varjak Paw are likely to enjoy this book.

The Tygrine Cat is a very gripping, suspenseful and action-packed story. And it’s also a story about belonging, friendship and prejudice. What Mati experiences as a newcomer to the Cressida Market community isn’t all that different from what countless human immigrants experience on a daily basis. The other cats are suspicious of him because he’s an outsider from a different land, with different habits, a different culture. They’re quick to jump to conclusions about him and to blame him when things go wrong.

But I hope I’m not making The Tygrine Cat sound like a heavy-handed allegory of the immigrant experience. This is a book that has something there if you look under the surface, but it’s also a wonderfully told and very fun story.

There was a detail about The Tygrine Cat that really made me smile: in the story, the cats sometimes ask one another, “Have you ever owned?”. Meaning that it is them who own and are responsible for the “hind”, or human, who takes care of them. I think most cat owners will recognize some truth in this.


In conclusion: a very enjoyable book, with just the right amount of suspense and depth. And of course, it's extra fun for those who love cats.

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And you can also read Valentina’s lovely interview with Inbali Iserles.