The Feline Plague

Deft, sly, and written in the style of magical realism, "The Feline Plague" tells the story of Ira, a Slovenian child who discovers early in life the cruelty of the adult world - particularly the mistreatment of animals. Ira struggles to reconcile her life with a world in which people are small-minded, the chances for happiness are few, and petty tyrants abound. Ira takes a job with The Lady, a capitalist entrepreneur who runs the Ark, a pet emporium where she expects 'pets will become the new jewellery'.She careens into adulthood alongside a fairy-tale cast: her evil mother and sisters, a benevolent grandmother, best friend and alter ego Felipe, a blind painter who moonlights as a window dresser, and a pair of twins so identical that their employer thinks they're one person. Novak is at all times in full control of her characters, setting Ira loose in a world where the most rare wooden carvings of miniature animals come to life and where jealousy, dreams, and realities unfold as Ira's rite of passage parallels the backdrop of communism's dying days and capitalism's shaky start.