A Tender, Quietly Magical Novella: An illustrated story about attention, doubt, and the people who carry us farther than we will ever see.
The Black Cat in the Back Row, © 2026 Ricardo A. López Rago. One Fifteen Press.
Antonio Vinoverde has taught economics on winter evenings for thirty years, and lately he can no longer tell whether any of it has mattered. Then, on a snowy January night, a small black cat appears in the back row of his class — a cat exactly like the one asleep on his windowsill half an hour away, and one that only he seems to truly notice. Night after night it returns, sitting in on the lecture, watching the students Antonio had stopped really seeing: the young woman who apologizes before every question, the man who comes straight from a long shift, the student who is always a step ahead of the room and a step behind its language.
As the cat leads him — through a storm, up a staircase that should not exist, and into rooms he was never meant to enter — Antonio is drawn back toward the question he had almost stopped asking: whether a teacher is ever allowed to know what his work becomes.
This is a story about:
- Attention, doubt, and quiet perseverance
- The unseen impact teachers and mentors leave behind
- Gentle magical realism grounded in everyday life
- A cat who notices what everyone else has stopped seeing
Tender, quietly magical, and gently funny — a small book about the quiet ways a life adds up. Recommended for adult readers.
One Fifteen Press 