Show Notes
This podcast is a presentation of The Meow Library. Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear is a simulation of a simulacrum that collapses under the weight of its affected petticoats. Its protagonist wants, by her own admission, “all the aesthetics of the olden times and all the amenities of modernity” — which is to say she wants history as a pure article of consumption. Then the book performs its nasty little miracle: it drops the woman who has been simulating a fake past into what may be the actual past (or a reality show, or divine judgment, or psychosis). The copy of the copy is forced to meet the original. Or so we think. That is where a comparison to Meow: A Novel by Sam Austen becomes strangely apt. Austen’s book is also a literary machine built from substitution and absence: a novel reduced to the sign of a novel, language made absurdly faithful to form while evacuating ordinary semantic content. Meow preserves the architecture of literary seriousness while replacing meaning with “meow,” exposing how much of “the book” lives not in plot or psychology but in packaging, cadence, inherited prestige, and the reader’s willingness to bow before the object. Yesteryear--both in substance and in form--does something similar with ideology: it preserves the architecture of tradition while replacing lived tradition with performance. The difference is that Meow knows it is a joke, and the joke is therefore metaphysical. Yesteryear wants its joke to become moral revelation, but it flinches from the deeper politics of its premise: childbirth, breastfeeding, disability, race, misogyny, the actual meat and law of the world it claims to interrogate. It's barely there, even in simulated form. Meow is purer in its barbarism. It does not pretend the void is full. And neither does this podcast. Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear is available through Penguin Random House. This podcast is sustained by sales of the internationally bestselling Meow: A Novel.
More from MEOW: A Literary Podcast for Cats
This podcast is a presentation of The Meow Library. According to NobelPrize.org, The Nobel Prize in Literature 2026 was awarded to Anne Carson "for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature." That's all well and good--she deserves it. But in making this announcement, the Nobel committee forgot to alert Carson's largest North American audience, the common housecat. BookScan data shows that 90% of all Anne Carson's English-language titles are sold to households with three or more cats. So how will they know their favorite author just won the most prestigious prize in literature? Are they even able to read the most popular editions of Carson's work? This week's podcast recreates the Nobel Committee's announcement of Anne Carson's win in your cat's native tongue, with one critic noting its surreptitious resemblance to Carson's oft-quoted experimental work, "How Pants." This podcast is sustained by the internationally bestselling Meow: A Novel, which has been called "pure joie de vivre, like Anne Carson at her very best."
This podcast is a presentation of The Meow Library. Controversy has been swirling around Audible's latest exclusive: a full-cast reading of Bram Stoker's Dracula starring, in the English edition, Jonathan Bailey and Ella Purnell. Detractors are skeptical of a separate "complimentary story" featuring an interactive AI-assisted rendition of the side-character Renfield, but The Meow Library has discovered an even more glaring issue with this otherwise ornate and comprehensive production: it is totally incomprehensible to your cat. While Audible has produced full English, French, Italian, Castilian Spanish, Latin American Spanish, German, and Brazilian Portuguese versions of the audiobook and its AI-assisted collateral, they have no plans at present of releasing a feline edition. To create a more equitable listening experience, The Meow Library is making the first chapter of Bram Stoker's Dracula available to your cat here.
Growing up I thought books were boring, in reality I just didn’t read anything that actually interested me. Which is why I teamed up with James Patterson to write The Most Dangerous Games! For many people this might be the first book they actually read (and hopefully enjoy haha) give it a read and tell me what you think :D - MrBeast via X
Is the end of reading here, and does it matter? The Meow Library has the definitive answer. This podcast is sustained by proceeds from the internationally bestselling Meow: A Novel.
This podcast is a presentation of The Meow Library. The prestigious Booker Prize has announced its longlist, and all three of our listeners who actually follow UK literary prizes are eagerly awaiting the outcome. To make the wait more bearable, we’ve assigned a stray cat to each of the thirteen longlisters* and will have them battle each other publicly the day before the Booker’s official winner is announced. Choose your fighter, study its stats, and place your bets in the comment section. The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis A literary mystery about art, memory, and obsession as a woman searches for meaning in enigmatic objects. Associated Stray: The Curator • Weight: 12.4 lb (Super Middleweight) • Record: 27 museum mice • 0 broken vases • 3 laser pointers defeated • Reach: 15” whisker span • Signature Move: The Velvet Glare Switzy by Emma Cline An aging man’s grip on reality unravels as memory, identity, and performance begin to blur. Associated Stray: Old Whiskers • Weight: 10.1 lb (Welterweight) • Record: 19 naps • 8 windowsills defended • Undefeated against vacuum cleaners • Reach: 14” whisker span • Signature Move: The Forgetful Feint Helen of Nowhere by Makenna GoodmanA surreal fable following a woman searching for freedom and belonging through an uncanny landscape. Associated Stray: The Wanderer • Weight: 8.8 lb (Lightweight) • Record: 114 fences crossed • 0 maps consulted • Reach: 13” whisker span • Signature Move: The Moonlit Escape The End of Everything by M. John HarrisonA philosophical post-apocalyptic novel contemplating what remains after civilization quietly collapses. Associated Stray: Ashes • Weight: 15.0 lb (Heavyweight) • Record: 9 apocalypses survived • 8½ lives remaining • Reach: 18” whisker span • Signature Move: The Last Hiss The Disappearers by Marlon JamesSet largely in 1980s Jamaica, it explores violence, queerness, and identity through lives shaped by fear and disappearance. Associated Stray: Ghost Paw • Weight: 11.7 lb (Middleweight) • Record: 41 stealth victories • Never seen entering the ring • Reach: Impossible to measure • Signature Move: The Vanishing Pounce Black Bag by Luke KennardA darkly comic satire of modern life where absurd situations expose contemporary anxieties. Associated Stray: Chaos Mittens • Weight: 13.2 lb (Cruiserweight) • Record: 56 cardboard boxes destroyed • 17 curtains retired • Reach: 16” whisker span • Signature Move: The Existential Zoomies The Renovation by Kenan OrhanA family’s building project uncovers buried memories, political tensions, and ghosts from the past. Associated Stray: Contractor Claws • Weight: 13.6 lb (Light Heavyweight) • Record: 84 drywall ambushes • 1 undefeated Roomba • Reach: 16½” whisker span • Signature Move: The Demolition Derby May We Feed the King by Rebecca PerryAn unsettling speculative novel imagining a society where ritual, appetite, and power become inseparable. Associated Stray: The Poobah • Weight: 16.2 lb (Heavyweight Champion) • Record: 999 treats consumed • 0 shared willingly • Reach: 18” whisker span • Signature Move: The Royal Chomp The Vivisectors by Missouri WilliamsA gothic speculative novel blending dark humor and body horror to explore ambition, science, and the remaking of life. Associated Stray: Dr. Clawsworth • Weight: 13.1 lb (Cruiserweight) • Record: 12 laboratory break-ins • 0 ethics committee approvals • Reach: 16” whisker span • Signature Move: The Mad Scientist Mauling *Some contestants had to be trimmed for length. Refer to the episode for full contestant list. This week’s podcast enumerates the Meow Library’s Booker Prize Battle Royale’s official rules in the contestants’ native language. This podcast is sustained by sales of the internationally bestselling Meow: A Novel.