The Bobcat

May 15, 2019
A spiked drink and a vaguely remembered sexual assault launch Riley's debut novel. After life-altering events at a frat party at her university in Philadelphia, Laurelie drops out and transfers to a small college in rural Vermont. She retreats into her art, living in a carriage house on the estate of a Montague College administrator and caring for his toddler son. The boy's mother dislikes the fact that her son comes home muddy from their walks in the woods by the river, but that's where Laurelie has seen something rare: a wounded bobcat, clearly pregnant. Even rarer, she's seen the hiker who has tracked the cat for hundreds of miles, a man who doesn't frighten or threaten either the bobcat or Laurelie. Slowly, tentatively, they reveal themselves to each other, including the long-hidden challenges that conspire to derail the future they are just beginning to plan. Teeming with lush imagery and mystical settings, and brimming with alluring magical realism, Riley's tale is a beguiling journey of discovery and recovery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)