The Cat at the Wall by Deborah Ellis (review)

Clare used to be a thirteen-year-old girl in North America, but following her death, she’s been reincarnated as a street cat in Israel’s West Bank. A jaded pessimist, she sees a free meal ticket when she gets trapped in a Palestinian house with two armed Israeli soldiers, who’ve taken over the house to spy on the neighbors, and a clearly terrified young Palestinian boy, who is unable to communicate and whose parents are nowhere to be found. As tensions increase in the house and in the surrounding rioting streets, Clare begins to reflect upon her former life and what sins she could have possibly committed—sure, she was a bully, a liar, and a thief, but she was just a girl—that landed her here. Clare’s past life offers an obvious point of accessibility for readers who might be more familiar with the trials of difficult teachers and annoying siblings than the presence of armed checkpoints and daily rioting; the scenes that contrast the girl’s school detention and the cat’s escape from bullets make for an affecting and jarring juxtaposition. Unfortunately, Ellis overrelies on flashbacks, losing some of the emotional traction (and social context) of the present military conflict and making the old Clare unlikable and off-putting. Still, the ultimate message that every one has a story and that everyone has a chance at redemption is a hopeful one; in light of the recent escalating Israeli/Palestinian conflict, this might make a useful fictional counterpart to Ellis’ nonfiction work as a unit on the region.