Mala is twelve when she and her cat end up living in the Polish woods, hiding from the Nazis after they massacred her entire family and every other Jew in the village in which they lived. Because she's blonde and speaks Polish well, she is able to survive by passing as a Polish girl, but it's still a bare existence, including the time spent as transported labour, working as a domestic in a German hotel.

Everywhere she goes, the cat goes with her. To be honest, that's why I picked up the book. I'd never heard of it before I saw it on the library shelves, and when I read the blurb I was instantly intrigued. And then, about halfway through the book, the cat essentially disappears from the story. Mala would be visiting a concentration camp, or being transported to England as a child refugee, and there'd be an occasional mention of the cat, but... how did she take it with her? Did no one ever comment? It's like the title character suddenly stops being part of the narrative entirely.

Which, I'm aware, is an unutterably spoilt thing to complain about, given the horrors that Mala lives through, and the things she has to do to keep herself alive. The point where her twelve-year-old self abandons a weeping seven-year-old relative to what she knows will be extermination, walking away with the cat because it's the only way to save her own life? Fucking horrific. I'm aware that complaining about the cat is, in comparison, ridiculous. Yet I picked up the book because of the cat - I think that'll be true of most readers - because it's a hook to entice people to pick up a book that they know will be grim. Mala's cat, and I wish there'd been more of a relationship shown between the two of them throughout the whole book, and not just half of it. 

Which is to say: Mala's experiences and her will to survive is incredible. The written presentation of those experiences, however, is somewhat uneven... and when judging the book and not the person, the writing counts.