A Song for Wildcats

Paperback, 240 pages

English language

Published by Dundurn Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-4597-5516-1

(1 review)

An arresting, vividly imaginative collection of stories capturing the complexity of intimacy and the depths of the unravelling mind.

Infatuation and violence grow between two girls in the enchanting wilderness of postwar Australia as they spin disturbing fantasies to escape their families. Two young men in the midst of the 1968 French student revolts navigate — and at times resist — the philosophical and emotional nature of love. An orphaned boy and his estranged aunt are thrown together on a quiet peninsula at the height of the Troubles in Ireland, where their deeply rooted fear attracts the attention of shape-shifting phantoms of war.

The five long-form stories in A Song for Wildcats are uncanny portraits of grief and resilience and are imbued with unique beauty, insight, and resonance from one of the country's most exciting authors.

3 editions

Taylor Drew reviewed A Song for Wildcats by Caitlin Galway

Visceral, yet soft.

5 stars

As I mentioned in my last review, I ended up getting a little wild (lol) with my NetGalley requests earlier this year. More or less every single book I've requested so far has been on a complete whim and for a book I'd never heard of until seeing the listing on NetGalley—including A Song for Wildcats by Caitlin Galway, who is also new to me as an author. And I can say without a doubt that my impulse pick here was absolutely correct.

A Song for Wildcats is a collection of five longer short stories (maybe some are novelette length?) that focus pretty heavily on the human, and in particular human relationships. Some are of a more romantic nature (and queer!) and others are more familial, and most have an air of magic about them. However, I don't mean magic as in witches on broomsticks (though there is some magic-magic) …

As I mentioned in my last review, I ended up getting a little wild (lol) with my NetGalley requests earlier this year. More or less every single book I've requested so far has been on a complete whim and for a book I'd never heard of until seeing the listing on NetGalley—including A Song for Wildcats by Caitlin Galway, who is also new to me as an author. And I can say without a doubt that my impulse pick here was absolutely correct.

A Song for Wildcats is a collection of five longer short stories (maybe some are novelette length?) that focus pretty heavily on the human, and in particular human relationships. Some are of a more romantic nature (and queer!) and others are more familial, and most have an air of magic about them. However, I don't mean magic as in witches on broomsticks (though there is some magic-magic) or necessarily in the whimsical sense. It's more like the people in these stories are living in-between and lack a certain concreteness—which is absolutely a good thing.

There are stories of abuse and trauma, of love and regrets, of need. My favourite story of the collection, the title story, manages to combine all of the above flawlessly. It takes place during the Vietnam War in a rural part of France during summer. The main character has been sent away from England after a particular incident and we watch as he tries to find himself in the heat of summer as student protests take hold in Paris. It is there that he meets a charming French-American protester as well. Given the nature of short stories being so short, I don't really want to go into it more than that, but I think this story represents the tone of the whole collection perfectly. I had to stop and just sit silently for a good ten minutes after finishing it. It's visceral, yet soft, and every story in the collection manages to give off that exact feeling while being about different people in different times and places... Reading back on what I wrote, "angst" is probably a good descriptor as well. I love angst (in stories).

It's hard to put into words, which is a bit ironic given the power these stories had over me while reading, but it felt as if each and every page was crawling beneath my skin and becoming a part of me. My own personal experiences bubbled forth unbidden as I read—it was a more immersive reading experience than I've had in a really long while. It was exactly what I needed to read in that moment. I just loved this collection so much. I hope it reaches a wide audience who love it as much as I did.

That all said, there are some content warnings I think are worth mentioning to anybody considering picking this up when its released. I won't reveal which stories contain which, but keep in mind that within the pages of the book, there will be talk of domestic and sexual violence, as well as death. If these topics make you unbearable uncomfortable or trigger you in ways that negatively affect your health, it may be in your best interests to avoid this one.