The book is written by Martin Treanor, an Irish author and illustrator known for his surreal takes on real situations our society faces. Having worked a variety of jobs in his time, including being a trade union representative and lift installer, he dedicated himself to writing in his thirties with a fascination for the fantastical. “When I moved to Denmark, I was living in an apartment that had a computer in it, and I don’t know why, but I just sat down and started writing”, he told Central Magazine.
“It was a couple of years after that I got my first short story sold, and I had to do my 10,000 hours to learn the craft”, Martin recounted. “In 2010, I got a deal for my first novel, so that was it from there, but it was still a slow build. It’s not for the faint-hearted, this game.”
His literary debut came in 2011 with the speculative fiction novel “The Silver Mist”, telling the story of a woman with Down Syndrome navigating the turmoil of the Irish Troubles. Since those early days, Martin has gone on to release four novels and three political satire books, including the urban fantasy “The Logos Prophecy” and “The Tales of Trumplethinskin”, published by Tiny Hands Press. Now comes his latest book, “Curiosity and the Cat”, released this past October.
Chapter by chapter
The book started as a series of online publications. “I was getting onto MySpace in the 2000s, trying to build a following, so I serialised some chapters there of a story called “The Temptation”, about a young girl who gets tempted to steal something and by doing so evokes supernatural things around her”, he recalled. “I developed it a bit, and then a few years ago, my wife told me I should turn it into a novel because it was a really good story.”
“I’d always wanted to do a Secret Garden style story filtered through the lens of Guillermo del Toro, so I came up with a hidden garden in London infused with Celtic Irish fairy folklore”, Martin added. Already under contract with his Canadian publisher for “The Logos Prophecy”, he decided to pitch the new idea. “The novel had performed so well that when I brought them this concept, they said yes.”
“Curiosity and the Cat” may look like a fairytale on the surface, but a closer look reveals something much darker”, Martin explained. ““The story grapples with guilt, family strain, a fractured marriage, and childhood abandonment.” His warning is woven through the narrative: “Be careful what you wish for — there are always malign forces lurking beyond the everyday, ready to exploit it.”
Inspired by superstitions
Martin has found inspiration for this story from the many folk tales he was taught as a kid growing up in Ireland. “I come from a country area, and fairy folklore is quite embedded into our everyday lives”, he shared. “I remember the time when my uncle cleared some fields, but he left a fairy tree, which is an entrance point to the Tuatha de Dannan.”
“When asked if he believed in it, he said there’s no point taking the chance”, he continued. “That’s the way we relate to the fairy folk and superstitions. We don’t believe in them essentially, but they are still an intrinsic part of our folklore and our makeup.”
“Curiosity and the Cat” can be bought now online, with an audiobook version also available. Martin is looking to put the book in physical stores once a Portuguese translation of it is made. For the time being, although no stores are yet to have it in stock a personal request can still be made from these locations to have the book ordered.