The Bobcat, Paperback

With the hypnotic intensity of Emily Fridlund's The History of Wolves and Fiona McFarlane's The Night Guest, Katherine Forbes Riley has created a mesmerizing love story, in lush, gorgeous prose, that examines art, science, and the magic of human chemistry.

"Teeming with lush imagery and mystical settings, and brimming with alluring magical realism, Riley's tale is a beguiling journey of discovery and recovery." -- Booklist

Haunting and lyrical, The Bobcat is Katherine Forbes Riley's magical debut novel in which Laurelie, a young art student who suffers in the aftermath of a sexual assault, has grown progressively more isolated and fearful. She transfers from her busy city university to a small college in rural Vermont, where she retreats into her vivid imagination, experiencing the world through her art. Most comfortable in the company of the child for whom she babysits, and most at ease in the woods, Laurelie has shunned any connection with her peers.

One day, while exploring the woods, she and her young charge encounter an injured pregnant bobcat - and the hiker who has been following it for hundreds of miles. In the hiker and his feline companion Laurelie recognizes someone as reclusive and wary as herself. The hiker, too, finds human companionship painful to endure, yet he is drawn to wounded Laurelie the way he is drawn to the bobcat. As Laurelie moves toward recovery and reconnection she also finds her voice as an artist, and a sense of purpose, maybe even a future, comes into sight. Then the child goes missing in the woods, threatening the bobcat, the hiker, and the fragile peace Laurelie has constructed.

About author(s):Katherine Forbes Riley is a writer and computational linguist. She received her BA from Dartmouth College and her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. Her language research has been published in scientific journals such as Speech Communication and Computer Speech and Language. Her creative writing appears in many literary venues, including Wigleaf's Top 50 list, and was awarded the Buffalo Almanack Inkslinger's Award for Creative Excellence. The Bobcat, her first novel, was longlisted for The Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. She lives in Vermont with her husband and two children and can be found online at www.katherineforbesriley.com.