The Cat's Table

8 hrs. 15 min.

Language Russian

Author Michael Ondaatje

Narrator Levan Tvaltvadze

Description

The novel by the author of "The English Patient"—an astonishing bestseller that conquered readers across all continents—won the most prestigious Booker Prize in the English-speaking world and became the basis for the famous film that received nine "Oscars." A three-week voyage from Ceylon to Europe aboard the liner "Oronsay" turned the life of our hero—nicknamed Myna (a talking starling)—upside down. Seated at the "cat’s table" (the most rundown place) in the ship’s restaurant, he meets two other boys, Ramadin and Cassius, and grown-ups, each more eccentric than the last: Mr. Mazappa plays in the ship’s orchestra and teaches them to sing the blues; Miss Lascetti throws overboard unfinished detective novels and strolls the deck in a "blue" vest whose pockets are stuffed with live birds; Mr. Daniels runs the ship’s garden in the hold and tries to court Emily—the handsome cousin of Myna. But Emily is far more interested in the wise man from Hyderabad in the acrobatic troupe "Jungkla." Still, the main mystery for everyone is the prisoner brought onto the deck only at midnight, in shackles…