A hangover as black as the night
Ein Kater schwarz wie die Nacht ( 2000 ) ( Swedish: Katten som älskade regn , 1992 ) is a children 's novel by the Swedish writer Henning Mankell , which was published in German by Oetinger Verlag (orig .: Rabén & Sjögren).
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For his sixth birthday, little Lukas was given a little black tomcat called "Munkel". When the hangover, whom Lukas learns to love and to take responsibility for, and who was always suspicious of his bigger brother "Vortex", disappears after a short time, Lukas' whole existence concentrates on the desire to look for him and find him again. At one point the little boy even decides to become like a cat in order to find his hangover again. Lukas packs his things and leaves his house to look for the cat. After taking a walk with the father, who is trying to comfort him, he develops the idea of a dream world his cat is in and tries to reach him by putting letters to him under a currant bush.
A tomcat as black as night is less of a cat story than a story between adventure and children's novels. With a precise look into the "normal" family with conservative roles (father works and earns the money, mother is a housewife), Mankell tells of the great feelings of a little boy: During his search, he experiences fear and anger as well as joy and sadness , discovers his penchant for honesty based on sadness (cf. 44) , marveled at the ignorance of adults (53) , outsmarted neighbors (cf. 54) and reached the limit at which not every question could be answered (cf. 58 ) .