The Story of a Seagull and the Cat Who Taught Her to Fly

Sepulveda & Cever

A timeless work

On a balcony in the port of Hamburg, a large, fat black cat promises to sit on the last egg of a dying seagull and swears to protect the hatchling, and to teach it to fly. The cats of the port will help him to keep this extraordinary promise.

The adventures of Zorba the cat, Lucky the young seagull, and their friends come from the imagination of Chilean great Luis Sepulveda. The moving poetry and universal values of this children’s tale and fable for adults will already be familiar to millions of readers around the world.

Having “fallen in love” with the story, Cever’s superb drawings are a wonderful interpretation of this unlikely friendship between feline and bird, and they succeed in marrying the humour and fantasy with the contemporary themes of environment, respect, and solidarity.

Luis Sepúlveda

Born in Chile in 1949, he spent several years in prison during the Pinochet regime. Exiled following his release, he travelled throughout Latin America. Later, he would work as a journalist and Greenpeace activist in Hamburg. Then, after living in Paris for a time he moved to northern Spain. Author of numerous novels, chronicles, tales, short stories and fables for children, he has written several bestsellers including The old man who read love stories (selling over a million copies) and The story of a seagull and the cat who taught her to fly. His books have been published in 50 countries and many have been adapted for stage and screen.

In 2020, shortly after expressing his admiration for the comic art of CEVER, he sadly passed away having contracted Covid.

CEVER

Franco-Swiss artist born in Brussels in 1959, a biologist by training. Following work as a freelance, self-taught advertising cartoonist during his studies, he would go on to lead a parallel career as a scientist and comics creator. He travelled the world for both work and pleasure until having children in the early 2000s led him to settle down. It was thanks to his children that he discovered The story of a seagull and the cat who taught her to fly.

Seduced by the story (but unfamiliar with its author), he contacted Luis Sepúlveda to propose a comic book version, which the novelist happily accepted.