MARCIA FARRAR AND MR. WHISKEY TIME-TRAVEL TO 1997

A middle-aged woman frustrated with her life learns that change isn’t always good in Somers’ whimsical time-travel tale.

Marcia Farrar loses her Italian lover when she is young and pregnant. A settlement awarded after his death helps to support the single mother as she raises their son Howie while working at various dead-end jobs, but it also ties her to the town of Round Stone, home to her rival and former foster sister, Nina. Marcia unexpectedly finds herself an empty nester when Howie receives and accepts a linguistics fellowship. Marcia worries about Howie, who leaves to conduct research on What Island, near Kanz-_ika, which is run by a murderous dictator. Then, her ancient dog Orson dies just after Howie’s departure. The grieving Marcia takes him to a pet crematorium, where, instead of Orson’s cremains, she receives the ashes of Mr. Whiskey, a cat who soon reconstitutes himself. Mr. Whiskey, in addition to being able to communicate telepathically with Marcia, can also time travel. (“This was ridiculous. She was talking to an ash-cat about the fact that they’d just time-tripped back to the past.”) He convinces her that they should use his ability to return to her college years in Chicago and attempt to change the direction of her life. It takes some time for the pair to get the hang of what they’re doing—it’s an engaging trial-and-error adventure for the lonely woman and her new feline best friend. Somers cannily builds this narrative on an everywoman battered by adversity; Marcia has always rolled with the punches while managing to provide a good childhood for her precocious son, so it’s easy for readers to appreciate her wish for a better life. She also employs a clever structure for her tale, blending the present and flashback sections with segments from the memoirs of author Socraties Love (a friend of Marcia’s father) and Internet search results from The Information Hatch (think Google). Readers must assemble all the clues to uncover the path that Marcia has been manipulated into following throughout the book—it’s an often tortuous journey, but well worth the trip.

This engaging debut novel takes a thought-provoking look at time travel.