Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Bobcat: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Bobcat: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Bobcat: A Novel
    Ebook220 pages2 hours

    The Bobcat: A Novel

    By Katherine Forbes Riley

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    ** Longlisted for The Center for Fiction's best debut novel of 2019 **

    With the hypnotic intensity of Emily Fridlund’s The History of Wolves and Fiona McFarlane’s The Night Guest, Katherine Forbes Riley has created a mesmerizing love story, in lush, gorgeous prose, that examines art, science, and the magic of human chemistry.

    "Teeming with lush imagery and mystical settings, and brimming with alluring magical realism, Riley’s tale is a beguiling journey of discovery and recovery.” — Booklist

    Haunting and lyrical, The Bobcat is Katherine Forbes Riley’s magical debut novel in which Laurelie, a young art student who suffers in the aftermath of a sexual assault, has grown progressively more isolated and fearful. She transfers from her busy city university to a small college in rural Vermont, where she retreats into her vivid imagination, experiencing the world through her art. Most comfortable in the company of the child for whom she babysits, and most at ease in the woods, Laurelie has shunned any connection with her peers.

    One day, while exploring the woods, she and her young charge encounter an injured pregnant bobcat – and the hiker who has been following it for hundreds of miles. In the hiker and his feline companion Laurelie recognizes someone as reclusive and wary as herself. The hiker, too, finds human companionship painful to endure, yet he is drawn to wounded Laurelie the way he is drawn to the bobcat. As Laurelie moves toward recovery and reconnection she also finds her voice as an artist, and a sense of purpose, maybe even a future, comes into sight. Then the child goes missing in the woods, threatening the bobcat, the hiker, and the fragile peace Laurelie has constructed.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcade
    Release dateJun 18, 2019
    ISBN9781948924115
    Author

    Katherine Forbes Riley

    Katherine Forbes Riley is a writer and computational linguist in Vermont. Katherine's writing appears in the Wigleaf 2018 top 50 list, as well as HCE Review, Ginosko, Gone Lawn, Blue Monday Review, decomP, Fiction Southeast, Noö, Spartan, Jellyfish Review, Conium, James Franco Review, Mulberry Fork, Paper Nautilus, Halfway Down The Stairs, Crack the Spine, Storyscape, Whiskey Island, Lunch Ticket, Eunoia, Literary Orphans, Eclectica, BlazeVOX, McNeese Review, Akashic Books, and Buffalo Almanack, from whom she received the Inkslinger’s Award for Creative Excellence. She finished her magical debut, The Bobcat , during the 2016-17 academic year, while a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome. She lives near Dartmouth College, in Norwich, VT.

    Related to The Bobcat

    Related ebooks

    Contemporary Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      All My Tomorrows

      May 10, 2022

      It was Misha’s first day minding the shop, and already she’d broken the fifth rule. Always lock the door immediately. When you had the most valuable merchandise in the universe, you had to take the utmost precautions. She hadn’t meant to disobey. It

      13 min read

    • Article

      The Elevator

      Oct 25, 2018

      The Elevator
      18 min read

    • Article

      The Walk Home

      Mar 29, 2021

      The Walk Home
      10 min read

    • Article

      Lost Children

      Aug 4, 2022

      Lost Children
      5 min read

    • Article

      Anna

      Feb 5, 2018

      Anna
      7 min read

    • Article

      10 Iconic Brooklyn Books…

      Jan 17, 2018

      10 Iconic Brooklyn Books…
      8 min read

    • Article

      Heidi High

      Nov 30, 2020

      Heidi High
      5 min read

    • Article

      Shula And The Sun

      Oct 13, 2017

      Shula And The Sun
      8 min read

    • Article

      Summer Beach Reads

      Jan 10, 2021

      Summer Beach Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      Dolly’s Star Turn

      Jul 12, 2023

      Dolly’s Star Turn
      7 min read

    • Article

      Emil, Approximated

      Nov 3, 2022

      Emil, Approximated
      15 min read

    • Article

      Passing Mary Oliver at Dawn

      Jan 17, 2019

      Passing Mary Oliver at Dawn
      3 min read

    • Article

      Tramping With Virginia

      Mar 4, 2024

      Tramping With Virginia
      17 min read

    • Article

      THE HOUSE with the BLUE DOOR

      May 7, 2020

      THE HOUSE with the BLUE DOOR
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Portrait

      Mar 1, 2018

      I WAS BORN almost completely deaf, and by the time I was seven I had already become a prisoner to my education. In the morning, I had speech therapy and tutoring with Mr. Bishop. We sat at my family’s long dining-room table, which was always covered

      9 min read

    • Article

      Dolly’s Star Turn

      Aug 9, 2023

      Dolly’s Star Turn
      7 min read

    • Article

      Dolly’s Star Turn

      Jul 12, 2023

      Dolly’s Star Turn
      7 min read

    • Article

      Challenger

      Dec 1, 2019

      BEFORE DEGREE or meter or mile, my first unit of measurement was the cord: a portion of wood cut for fuel, four by four by eight, or one hundred and twenty-eight cubic feet. Eight cords equaled twenty stacks, six months, the winter buried within the

      17 min read

    • Article

      It’s Come to This

      Sep 1, 2021

      It’s Come to This
      16 min read

    • Article

      ‘The End of the Day’: Featured Fiction from Bill Clegg

      Sep 30, 2020

      An excerpt from a novel Kirkus called "A moody, atmospheric domestic drama with a mystery novel somewhere in its family tree." The post ‘The End of the Day’: Featured Fiction from Bill Clegg appeared first on The Millions.

      12 min read

    • Article

      Silent All These Years: On Annie Dillard

      Jul 29, 2021

      The way we talk about Annie Dillard makes me sad and afraid. Sad because we're unable to appreciate her work if we can't see how she is just one of us. And afraid because affixing someone with otherness is the first stage in allowing that someone to

      15 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Bobcat

    4/5

    10 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      I finished this book before I went to sleep one night. I woke up the next day still thinking about it and cocooned in literary happiness. In many ways, this is a romance, and I’m not a huge fan of the genre. Romance is fine when it’s a small part of a bigger story, but as the focus, it usually leaves me cold.

      However, I love “The Bobcat”. The characters are unusual, beautiful, and completely relatable. The love between the protagonist and her love interest is intense yet gentle, drifting off the pages like a sweet fragrance. I’m sure many people won’t like the story - the fact that the male love interest’s name isn’t revealed until the last page will irk those who like everything explained upfront. However, I thought it was a wonderful device for catapulting the dreaminess of the previous pages into the real world. The writing is luscious, deep, and meant to be savoured. A great debut.
    • 5/5
      The Bobcat by Katherine Forbes Riley due 6-15-2019 Arcade / Skyhorse 5 / 5Fantastic and inspiring, this gave me all the feels-happiness, sadness, love, hope, humor and imagination. Written in an engaging and relatable way, I was instantly drawn into the life of Lauelie, and artist / student at Montague in Vermont. Laurelie rents a small cottage behind the home of a young couple and in exchange for some of the rent, she also watches their 2 year old son, Rowan. They enjoy following the trail behind the cottage through the forest to a river.One day while sitting on the riverbank, Laurelie and Rowan see a bobcat limping from the forest to the water. She is pregnant and obviously hurt. They are not sure how to react, when a hiker comes out of the trees, following the bobcat. He tells them he has been following the bobcat from Bangor, Maine-about 300 miles away- after seeing it being shot by hunters. The hiker, Laurelie and Rowan begin meeting and form a friendship, that enriches them all, convincing them to reach beyond their pasts and learn to trust again.The action, flow and suspense are absolutely perfect. The relationships between the characters is inspiring and delightful. The interaction with the bobcat- and the character of Rowan is heartwarming.This is an endearing story that I just can not forget. Highly recommendedThanks to Arcade/ Skyhorse for this e-book ARC for a fair and honest review.#netgalley #TheBobcat
    • 5/5
      A “haunting and lyrical” short novel that packs a punch. This beautifully written debut follows Laurelie, an art student, who suffers from the aftermath of a sexual assault. She transfers from a city university to a rural small school in Vermont. Hiding from human connections, Laurelie finds a likeness in a hiker who is following a pregnant bobcat.This will be one of my top reads for 2019.Thank you to NetGalley and Skyhorse Publishing/Arcade Publishing for providing me with an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.