A Night Out

Omar Ben Sufi lives the cushioned life of a Persian prince. Silk cushions. Cream poured to order. A name that sounds like it belongs in a sultan's court. But when a scrappy street cat named Ringtail Pete scratches at the garden wall, something ancient stirs in Omar's pampered soul. He craves the moonlit beyond. What follows is one cat's feral awakening. There are frogs to hunt (badly). Catfights with a thug named Ash-Can Sam. A crash course in the law of the alley. Peple writes with a wry affection for his hero's pretensions and a genuine delight in the scrappy world beyond the garden wall. The humor lands because it's observational rather than broad. This is a small, warm book about a very specific hunger: the need to prove you're more than your comfortable circumstances. It's for readers who enjoy quiet comedies of manners, animal narratives with personality, and the occasional reminder that freedom tastes like frog legs and dirt.