4th Estate signs Yu Yoyo's debut Invisible Kitties about the 'magical curiosity of cats'

4th Estate has acquired Invisible Kitties, the début novel from Chinese poet Yu Yoyo, translated by Jeremy Tiang. Editorial director Katie Bowden secured UK and Commonwealth rights, including e-book and audio rights, from Li Kangqin at New River Literary. North American rights sold to HarperVia, and publication is scheduled for October 2024.

Invisible Kitties follows a young couple whose peaceful existence is disrupted by the arrival of a newly adopted kitten. 4th Estate said: "Charting their ever-evolving relationship with cats—some they live with, others who exist only in their imagination—Invisible Kitties is a meditation on the quiet moments of everyday life and a celebration of cats in all their many enchanting, chaotic, extraordinary forms." 

Bowden said of the début: "Invisible Kitties is the most inventive, truthful and delightful portrayal of the curious magic of cats that I have ever read. Yu Yoyo is a hugely exciting literary talent and she has written a book that will speak to any reader who has fallen in love with (and had their life turned upside down by) a strange, infuriating pet."

Yoyo said: "I’m thrilled that my book Invisible Kitties will be published by  4th Estate in the UK. I always think of cats as intangible and uninhibited creatures: they represent my longing for freedom. May this book embark on a journey to wander about, free from the confines of reality."

Yoyo is a poet and visual and audio artist from Sichuan, China. She started publishing poetry at the age of 14 and her work has been featured in various literary journals and anthologies. She has written various poetry collections and she won the 2017 Henry Luce Translation Fellowship. Some of her poems were translated and published by Poetry Translation Centre in her first English collection, My Tenantless Body. 

Editors and agents recently spoke to The Bookseller about the themes of "healing fiction", often featuring cats, being more in demand.