Don't let the cover's cuddly close-up cause you to bypass this book. Asleep in the Sun is packed with beautiful composition and colors. Hans Silvester has been snapping the exquisite beasts of the Cycladic Islands for almost 20 years, and his love and patience have paid off before. In the 1993 Cats in the Sun, he notes the symbiotic rapport between Greeks and their feline gifts: cats keep the rat level within reason, and the humans "like them without exactly loving them, they care for them without exactly caring about them." Silvester, however, obviously cares very much about them, and takes care to catch them in the best possible light. Mediterranean sun and shade sweep across rough pavements, blue sea, and white steps. Cats keep watch in the most tenuous spots, or nap on boats and buildings with elegant panache. If there is more sleeping than leaping in this book, why blame the exhausted kitties? It is the author who admits to being "an unconditional lover of the siesta." Anyway, they still look sublime.

CATS  PICTORIAL  WORKS  PHOTOGRAPHY  ANIMALS