cover image The Cat Who Came Back for Christmas: How a Cat Brought a Family the Gift of Love

The Cat Who Came Back for Christmas: How a Cat Brought a Family the Gift of Love

Julia Rump. Plume, $15 (288p) ISBN 978-0-452-29878-1

Rump’s 10-year-old autistic son, George, often felt more to her like a “visitor she could not make happy instead of [her] own child”—that is, until the day a stray cat appeared in their garden. Ben the cat’s impact on the Rump family is the subject of this engaging memoir. Single mother Rump lives with George in a London council estate. When George is born, something is obviously wrong: he cries “day in, day out” and hates to be touched. He barely sleeps, doesn’t make eye contact, and, when he’s older, if a visitor arrived unexpectedly he “curl[s] up into a ball and rock[s].” However, after they’ve taken their stray cat to the vet and Rump and George visit the cat, George kneels down beside the cage and talks to the cat, who looks George “square in the eyes.” To Rump’s amazement, George doesn’t look away, and instead engages with the cat. After that, as Rump says, “everything changed.” With a fresh, honest, and frequently funny voice, despite the considerable hardships depicted, Rump offers a moving story that comes from the heart. Agent: Laetitia Rutherford, Mulcahy Conway Associates. (Sept.)