Overheard in a Dream | The Mechanical Cat
TOREY says that although the story is entirely fiction, she wrote it to explore her own experiences with creativity. She had a very vivid fantasy life as a young child which started much the way Laura’s did in the scene from the book and it carried on well into her twenties. She says that also, like Laura, she used to “drive people nuts” when she was an adolescent by making up scenarios and characters and “testing” them in real life to see if they were realistic.
Originally THE MECHANICAL CAT was not accepted for publication in English. Now published in the UK titled OVERHEARD IN A DREAM.
In rejecting the novel, her publisher told her this was because the book did not fit into an existing genre. It was actually described as “too novel”. As a consequence, the book haSd its world debut in Sweden, followed a week later by the Italian publication and in Finland. Now published in Japanese, it has gone on to become a best seller in all four countries.
