Cat Tales for Mariette by Michael Brown

Cat Tales for Mariette: An Unexpected Friendship on the Camdeboo Plains of South Africa is a remarkable story of love and friendship: for people, for pets, for the wild and nature. Michael Brown, author of The Presence Process and Alchemy of the Heart has written a charming tale (or many tales) of love and loss, joy and death, and the foibles of humans and animals.  He narrates the story of how he is coerced by a well-meaning local to visit one of the town’s residents who is dying of cancer in the local hospital. Michael reluctantly agrees to a one-time visit, which becomes daily.

Set as it is in South Africa, Mr. Brown’s native land, there is a particular resonance of history, by turns serious and enchanting, to these stories. Still, the key word is charming. In the first few chapters the author explains how he’s always had dogs while growing up, never cats:

“I loved them all, but strangely enough never did any one of them become my dog.” I paused for a moment. “I never really thought about that until now,” I said, sipping my tea.

“That’s because you’re not a dog person,” Mariette said enthusiastically, “but you just didn’t know that yet.”

“Now you’re getting ahead of the story,” I teased….

As the tales continue, Michael and Mariette come to a place of love and healing. Cat Tales for Mariette is a gentle, wise, and humorous take on reviewing one’s life review with insight and forgiveness.

Michael Brown is the successful author of two Namaste Publishing books, The Presence Process and Alchemy of the Heart. Both books are a culmination of his years exploring present moment awareness. He developed the internationally known procedure The Presence Process. After traveling extensively in North America to promote this process, Michael returned to South Africa to pursue other interests, including fiction writing. Cat Tales for Mariette is Michael’s first fiction book. He lives in Aberdeen, South Africa.