The Last Black Cat

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Category: Literature

Published on Thursday, 24 March 2016 16:35

Sometimes to describe the mysteries of the human condition it needs a fairy tale rather than a philosophical text. Essentially, from Aesop to Phaedrus, until La Fontaine and Orwell's Animal Farm, the world of animals has always been an inexhaustible source of symbols and allegories useful for better understanding of the world and the relationships between human beings.
Additional to this great classics, there is now also The Last Black Cat of Trivizas Evghenios.

In an island like many others, symbol of a western country like many others, appears a mysterious secret sect that, apparently, wants to eliminate all the black cats considered the root of all evils.  But actually it will be discovered that under this absurd superstition there are shady social interest.
Unemployment, inflation, devaluation, public debt, rising crime, theft, violence, robbery, corruption, strikes in the mines, demonstrations, occupations, these are the problem that afflict the island. The government desperately need a scapegoat, the black cats. With the help of the secret sect, the government start a discrimination campaign against the black felines.
The last of the blacks cats, after losing friends and comrades, sees widening the persecution to all cats of every color, who fearfully remained on the sidelines, doing just vague proclamations of solidarity, in the hope that the campaign of annihilation would only ever concerned the "others".

This story deals about discrimination as well as the power of illogical superstition seen from the perspective of a cat as the main protagonist.

Evghenios Trivizàs was born in Athens in 1946, he is a Greek sociologist and writer of children’s books.
He studied Law and Economics and he’s currently Professor of Criminology at the University of Reading in Great Britain.
He has authored  over 150 books, translated in different languages.
He is also the winner of more than 20 national and international prizes and awards, and much of his work has been adapted for stage, screen and radio.

The Lost Black Cat is combined with a wonderful illustration in black and white of Stephen West.
I hope you found this book interesting and that now you wish to read the whole story!