This is a true story. I felt the writing let the story down a little. I just wasn’t as good as I had hoped

I read 100 pages and just could not get along with the style of writing in this book which is unfortunate as I am interested in the subject matter. DNF

Mala’s Cat

Alone in a forest with only a cat for company - this is the deeply moving true story of one little girl's remarkable survival in the shadow of the Holocaust

Growing up in the Polish village of Tarnogrod, on the fringes of a deep pine forest, Mala has the happiest childhood anyone could hope for.

But, when the Nazis invade, her beloved village becomes a ghetto and family and friends are reduced to starvation. Taking matters into her own hands, she bravely removes her yellow star, and sneaks out to the surrounding villages for food.

On her way back she receives a smuggled letter from her sister warning her to stay away: her loved ones have been rounded up for deportation. With only her cat, Malach, and the strength of the stories taught by her family, she must flee into the forest.

Malach becomes her family, her only respite from loneliness, a guide and reminder to stay hopeful even in the darkness.

I was really hoping to like this book, as not only does it contain a cat but it also captures the hardships and horrors of Jewish life in Poland before the war and the unforgivable events of the Holocaust.
Told by Mala, a young girl struggling to survive and provide for her starving family.
Unfortunately i just couldn’t get into the writing style, I found it clunky and inconsistent.
Thank you to @netgalley and @michaeljosephbooks for my ecopy.

This book was so well done, I was very impressed with the way the author dealt with such a difficult subject. As a reader you get a real sense of the horrors faced by Mala and her desperate will to survive. At the end of the book I was left with a real sense of hope which was something I was not expecting. Mala's Cat carries an important message and I can highly recommend it.

What an amazing and inspiring read!

It is still shocking to see what people had to endure and even more so the children during the Second World War. Families were wiped out and young children had to fend for themselves.

This is the story of Mala Szorer who was living in Tarnogrod, Poland when the Germans invaded. She was a happy go lucky 12 and a half-year-old who loved going to school and learning. Then the Second World War happened. She lost first her brother and then her parents and four sisters. Before her parents were taken Mala was the one who went out to get food for her family, thus keeping them alive. Together with her trusted cat Malach (Angel in Hebrew), she got good at getting hold of food. When her family was taken away and killed she had to fend for herself and it is amazing how she survived! She was in mortal danger so many times but managed to escape. A lot of times because of the alertness of her cat.
We follow her journey till she ends up in Germany and after the war to the UK. It is unbelievable how she managed to keep Malach with her, even taking her on the train. Malach was truly her guardian angel and how she managed to find Mala sometimes after days is just out of this world.

It is a story of endurance, of being strong under the most harrowing circumstances.

Thank you to Mala for sharing her story with us!
Also thank you to Penguin, Michael Joseph UK for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

This is a story of faith and courage. Mala is a young Jewish girl in Poland during the Second World War. She recounts her struggle for survival as her friends and family are swallowed in the horrors of the Holocaust. The readers are invited to follow her on her journey of peril as she seeks to survive accompanied only by her cat Malach. A fascinating story of survival against all odds. I am very glad I was given the opportunity to read her story and time to reflect on the fear and suffering she must have endured.

Mala's cat is a WWII memoir of a young Jewish girl who survived against all odds, a feat she partially credits to a stray cat she names Malach, which in Yiddish means Angel.

I felt there was a distancing of emotion here between the author and events, something which I think must be a self defence mechanism. I cannot imagine how the heart would break and the tears would flow if it were written in a more emotive fashion. Kacenberg tries her best to stick to the events, rarely than delving into her own emotional state.

A child in a war-torn Poland, with only a cat as a friend and no idea who can be trusted. It is because of her faith, cunning and ability to lie convincingly that she survived.

There are times when she shows incredible compassion, kindness and bravery, risking her own life to help others. But necessarily there are times when she must be ruthless, put herself first or betray someone's trust in order to survive.

I really appreciated that Kacenberg did not gloss over or pretend that she herself had always acted perfectly in order to present herself as a hero. She makes sure we know she was always acting in a manner to make it out alive, and who could ever judge her for that?

A story of a survivor which deserves to be read.

This was such a heartbreaking story of a brave little girl and her fight/journey navigating through the horrors of the holocaust with her cat.
This memoir was so beautifully sorrowful and from a time that should have been full of darkness and despair emerged this little ray of hope that allowed Mala to survive despite all odds.
I cried several times and felt like I was living each page with her, I wanted to sweep her up and cradle her and tell her that it will all be ok. A reeally enjoyable and heartfelt read. I loved it and everyone should read it.