My Beloved Monster

A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR ''Exquisite... a beautiful book, one of the finest meditations on animal companionship that I have ever read'' Kathryn Hughes, Guardian An instant New York Times bestseller, this is an unforgettable story about love, loss and redemption from a highly acclaimed writer Caleb 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