This collection is lush, haunting, and touches on many themes that are incredibly tough, yet Caitlin Galway handles them with an expert touch. Along with her riveting prose and breathtaking attention to detail, the way Caitlin's writing approaches discussions of mental illness and trauma makes me feel utterly seen. With a dreamlike (or nightmare-ish?) quality that makes the reader feel as though they are walking through mist in some liminal space, A Song for Wildcats authentically exhibits what it's like to live with mental illness. Caitlin is a writer to watch, without a doubt. Pure talent.
K.J. Aiello, author of The Monster and the Mirror
Moving deftly between the real and surreal, A Song for Wildcats manifests the achingly familiar wounds from trauma, grief, family and mental health into strange realms. These stories, full of doppelgangers, malevolent spirits, and fairy wisps, speak in the language of wildcats: urgent, otherworldly, and impossible to ignore.
Paola Ferrante, Governor General's finalist for Her Body Among Animals
Moving deftly between the real and surreal, A Song for Wildcats manifests the achingly familiar wounds from trauma, grief, family and mental health into strange realms. These stories, full of doppelgangers, malevolent spirits, and fairy wisps, speak in the language of wildcats: urgent, otherworldly, and impossible to ignore.
Paola Ferrante, Governor General's finalist for Her Body Among Animals
There's a lot to admire about these stories — exquisite language, nuanced characterizations, and sophisticated insights into desire, longing, and identity. But what might be most striking is the unwavering authority of Caitlin Galway's storytelling, which recalls some of the great short fiction writers in the English language, particularly Grace Paley and Mavis Gallant. A Song for Wildcats is an outstanding collection by a writer to watch.
Pasha Malla, author of All You Can Kill
Exquisite as a noose fashioned from lace, as violent as arsenic served in a painted tea cup. With each story, Caitlin Galway crafts a delicious, gothic world informed by the morbid fascinations of its characters. Galway examines love with a microscope and uncovers its unspeakable qualities: the darkness of loyalty, the recklessness of devotion. The writing is suspenseful and gorgeous. A cross between Mavis Gallant and Shirley Jackson, between Patricia Highsmith and Louisa May Alcott. I loved it.
Heather O'Neill, award-winning author of The Capital of Dreams and When We Lost Our Heads
A Song for Wildcats is a remarkable collection of five stories that move seamlessly through historical time periods and settings with a touch of the surreal. Whether it’s ghosts in Northern Ireland during The Troubles or doppelgangers in 1980s Las Vegas, Caitlin Galway’s striking and elegant prose transports you into the rich inner worlds of her raw but fiery characters. These urgent stories of desire, secrets, unconditional love, resistance, and survival are intimate, dreamlike, and profoundly affecting.
Kathryn Mockler, author of Anecdotes, shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award and the Danuta Gleed Literary Award