This image is the cover for the book P.S. Your Cat Is Dead

P.S. Your Cat Is Dead

“An ingenious, intriguing, and also moving story about two losers who become friends” from the American playwright and coauthor of A Chorus Line (The Sacramento Union).

It’s New Year’s Eve in New York City. Your best friend died in September, you’ve been robbed twice, your girlfriend is leaving you, you’ve lost your job . . . and the only one left to talk to is the gay burglar you’ve got tied up in the kitchen . . . P.S. your cat is dead.

An instant classic upon its initial publication, P.S. Your Cat Is Dead received widespread critical acclaim and near fanatical reader devotion. The stage version of the novel was equally successful and there are still over two hundred new productions of it staged every year. Now, for the first time in a decade, James Kirkwood’s much-loved black humor comic novel of manners and escalating disaster returns to bewitch and beguile a new generation.

“James Kirkwood manages to combine the most marvelous light witty dialogue with the most harrowing of events . . . absolutely fascinating—I couldn’t stop reading from the minute the first shot was fired.” —Nora Ephron

“This novel is woven together with such artistic acumen that suspense never ebbs. The plot structure, characterization, dialog and style are virtually flawless.” —Chicago Sun-Times

“With every page the situation gets crazier, zanier, more improbable, also funnier . . . Kirkwood’s bizarre humor comes off, thanks to his ability to throw opposites together, with a stand-up comic’s timing.” —Publishers Weekly

James Kirkwood

James Kirkwood was a prominent figure in the theater world as well as the author of several novels. He's best remembered as the co-author of the long-running musical A Chorus Line and for P.S. Your Cat is Dead.

St. Martin’s Griffin