When Samuel, a lonely linguistics lecturer, wakes
... up on New Yeaŕs Day, he is convinced that the year ahead will bring nothing more than passive verbs and un-italicized moments--until an unexpected visitor slips into his Barcelona apartment and refuses to leave. The appearance of Mishima, a stray, brindle-furred cat, becomes the catalyst that leads Samuel from the comforts of his favorite books, foreign films, and classical music to places hés never been (next door) and to people he might never have met (a neighbor with whom hés never exchanged a word). Even better, the Catalan cat leads him back to the mysterious Gabriela, whom he thought héd lost long before, and shows him that sometimes love is hiding in the smallest characters. Read More