Bulgakov's cat

In Adda Djørup’s highly anticipated novel Bulgakov’s Cat a single mother and author-incrisis attempts to abandon fiction altogether. Instead, a sweet-talking cat called Behemoth lures her down a path of sin, decadence and creative chaos. Should she return to her craft, or indulge in her carnal affair with the ballsiest of cats? How else will she provide for her five-year-old daughter in a world that seems to be unravelling? With mischievous humour and playful prose Djørup grapples with existential questions of language, reality, art and motherhood. In the author’s own estimation Bulgakov’s Cat is a raunchy and sentimental defence of art and humanity. Not a pebble but a black pearl in your shoe. The reader won’t know whether to laugh, cry, or masturbate.

About the author 

Adda Djørup (b. 1972) made her debut in 2005 with the poetry collection Monsieurs monologer (Monsieurs Monologues). She has published short stories, drama and novels, including Den mindste modstand (The Least Resistance), which won the European Union Literature Prize in 2009. Bulgakov’s Cat, published in January 2020 by Rosinante, is currently in its second print run.

Text translated by Lin Falk van Rooyen