Robert Perišić
Robert Perišić was born in Split, Croatia, in 1969. His most widely translated works are the novels Nas covjek na terenu, (Our Man in Iraq) and Podrucje bez signala (No-Signal Area), both of which have received international critical acclaim in numerous prestige media outlets, including The New Yorker, the New York Times, NPR’s All Things Considered, and The Guardian.
from A Cat at the End of the World
By Robert Perišić and Vesna MaricIt’s hard to find historical fiction that accurately captures the worldview and mindset of the people depicted—and exceedingly rare to encounter characters whose lives and thoughts feel expansive, rather than subtractive, in the remote past. Croatian writer Robert Perišić’s latest novel, A Cat at the End of the World, transports the reader to ancient Syracuse, and then to a colonial outpost in the Adriatic. The protagonist Kalia, servant to a wealthy family and object of torment by the scion Pigras, is accompanied by a cat named Miu and shown the first glimmer of care by a woman named Menda. In this excerpt, Perišić shows how a cat's ungovernability can undo a hierarchy.
