The Familiar, Volume 5 - by Mark Z Danielewski (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The Season One finale of this riveting multisensory masterpiece from the visionary author of House of Leaves.

The Familiar Volume 1 Wherein the cat is found . . .
The Familiar Volume 2 Wherein the cat is hungry . . .
The Familiar Volume 3 Wherein the cat is blind . . .
The Familiar Volume 4 Wherein the cat is toothless . . .
The Familiar Volume 5 Wherein the cat is named . . .

The astonishing series about a young girl who befriends a cat hunting humanity continues with Volume 5, and the Season One finale, in which the consequences of how we encounter one another come into poignant and terrifying relief--especially on one September night, when an unexpected phone call demanding the return of the little white cat challenges everything the Ibrahims hold dear. They are not alone. Jingjing must contend with a rival he could never have anticipated, while Xanther must relinquish all she thought she knew as a far greater responsibility is set before her. Light wavers and pomegranates reveal their price as the effects of a great transition start to reverberate around everyone, Shnorhk's efforts to resume playing music cannot escape history's ghosts. Cas, in upstate New York, comes face-to-face with her lifelong nemesis in a candlelit rendezvous that presages the international crisis soon to come. As more lines tangle, Özgür and Luther brawl with a future that may have chosen them long ago, and Isandòrno crosses a line that will force him over the border into a country he has until now steadfastly refused. All the while, a terrible power roaming the world continues to grow . . .

Review Quotes

"[The Familiar] is not only [Mark Z. Danielewski's] best book since his acclaimed opera prima, House of Leaves; it's even better, and also more accessible. Conceived as the book version of a long-running TV show, its . . . volumes tell the tale of a smart, fragile and epileptic little girl who finds a cat that may or may not be magical. Their encounter sets off a chain reaction that starts with her immediate family and will probably reach almost every corner of the world. "There is no writer in America that resembles Mark Z. Danielewski even remotely. His books are disturbing Freudian fairy-tales, monumental and intimate at the same time, discordantly polyphonic, populated by wise children and lost parents, soldiers and storytellers, magical weapons, sentient houses and familiar spirits. Their words interweave on the page with paintings and knitting and calligrams, creating painfully beautiful objects, almost like printed sculptures. They're also Literature in High Capitals, contemporary counterparts of Bouvard et Pécuchet, Mallarmé and Joyce, heirs to the almost mystical hubris of High Modernism, almost too ambitious for their own good and rabidly opposed to the weightlessness of our times."
-- Javier Calvo, O

About the Author

MARK Z. DANIELEWSKI was born in New York City and now lives in Los Angeles.