Nine Lives Ahead

When an unremarkable man's cat begins speaking fluent English, it doesn't deliver prophecy or magic—only dry, surgical advice and an unsettling awareness of what's coming next. The cat, Bandit, claims to be a reincarnated human from the future, returned for a single purpose: to keep his owner from making the same mistakes that once hollowed out a life.

What starts as absurd guidance about timing, money, and viral moments becomes a quiet apprenticeship in restraint. As attention grows and opportunity accelerates, Bandit enforces strict rules: move slowly, say less, never confuse validation with meaning. Each success arrives with a warning. Each invitation—to scale, to optimize, to explain—threatens to turn a human life into a consumable story.

When suspicion mounts and the internet demands answers, Bandit breaks his own rule and speaks in front of a witness, triggering consequences neither of them can undo. As the cat's borrowed life nears its end, the narrator must choose between becoming a public narrative or remaining quietly whole—between being known and staying human.

Wry, intimate, and quietly philosophical, Nine Lives Ahead is a darkly funny novel about fame without spectacle, wisdom without certainty, and how sometimes the future doesn't need to be predicted—only resisted.