num_pages: 269
description: A spellbinding story - by turns poignant and electrifying - about the magical often forbidden discoveries of childhood and a lifelong journey that begins unexpectedly with a spectacular sea voyage.In the early 1950s an eleven-year-old boy in Colombo boards a ship bound for England. At mealtimes he is seated at the cat's table - as far from the Captain's Table as can be - with a ragtag group of insignificant adults and two other boys Cassius and Ramadhin. As the ship makes its way across the Indian Ocean through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean the boys tumble from one adventure to another bursting all over the place like freed mercury. But there are other diversions as well: one man talks with them about jazz and women another opens the door to the world of literature. The narrator's elusive beautiful cousin Emily becomes his confidante allowing him to see himself with a distant eye for the first time and to feel the first stirring of desire. Another Cat's Table denizen the shadowy Miss Lasqueti is perhaps more than what she seems. And very late every night the boys spy on a shackled prisoner his crime and his fate a galvanizing mystery that will haunt them forever.As the narrative moves between the decks and holds of the ship and the boy's adult years it tells a spellbinding story - by turns poignant and electrifying - about the magical often forbidden discoveries of childhood and a lifelong journey that begins unexpectedly with a spectacular sea voyage.
language: English
title: The Cat's Table
publisher: Cape