Cat Tales: 9 Short Stories That Center Felines
Inspired by BookRiot’s recent list of new books in translation featuring cats, we revisit some of our favorite feline-focused short fictions.
Egypt
Egypt has many fictional cats, many of which transform between the real and the supernatural, between human and cat.
“Holy Wednesday”by Mahmoud Aboudoma, tr. Sarah Enany
“Tale of the Resurrected Brother and the Metamorphosed Mother,” by Amgad ElSabban, tr. Mona Khedr
“The Cats,” by Mohamed El-Makhzangi, tr. Omar Ibrahim
Iraq
In this story from Iraq, a woman promises to come back as a cat after her death.
“The Return,” by Mahdi Issa al-Saqr, tr. Hend Saeed & in the invaluable Contemporary Iraqi Fiction, tr. Shakir Mustafa.
Palestine
Both cat stories from Palestine are about how cats can destabilize — or restabilize — life inside a family.
“Mordechai’s Mustache and His Wife’s Cats,” by Mahmoud Shukair, tr. Michael K. Scott
“Schrödinger’s Cats” by Ameer Hamad, tr. M Lynx Qualey
Lebanon
This classic story from Lebanon is full of the potential for violence against cats and women.
“The Cat” by Layla Baalbaki, tr. Tom Abi Samra
Morocco
As the afterword to this story notes, “Certain details in this story about the relationship between the late Moroccan artist Abbas Saladi (1950-1992) and his cat Minouche, and about his existential choices in life and art, are derived from the tales narrated by his childhood friend and neighbour, the self-made artist Abdel Fattah Abu al-Thaka.”
“Minouche,” by Anis Arrafai, tr. Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp
Syria
Zakaria Tamer’s taut allegorical stories often include animals; here, a boy mewls like a cat: “I just smile, because they don’t understand that I only meow when I want to talk about something with my white cat, whose language I understand. I also understand the walls’ language, and the trees’ language, and the birds’.”
“The Speakers,” by Zakaria Tamer, tr. Marilyn Hacker
Bonuses:
From “The Merits of the Housecat,” by al-Suyuti (tr. D Larsen)
The CATS issue of ArabLit Quarterly
July 4, 2024 @ 1:33 pm
Many thanks for this thoughtful collection of cat stories. Arabo-Muslim culture and practice recognize animals as Allah’s creatures and hence animal abuse is seen as sinful. (A note to Hend Saeed: I translated Al-Saqr’s “The Returnee” in my Contemporary Iraqi Fiction, an anthology published by Syracuse and by the AUC.)
July 4, 2024 @ 10:47 pm
Oh, of course you did! I can’t believe I’d forgotten.