Quick Take
- Narration: Hannah Shaw self-narrates with the warmth and personal investment of someone sharing a passion project, one of the more intimate audiobook listening experiences in the photography-adjacent space.
- Themes: cat welfare across cultures, compassion as a universal language, travel as a lens for understanding human-animal bonds
- Mood: Warm, luminous, and quietly moving
- Verdict: A joyful and genuinely touching audio journey across thirty countries that works best when paired with the downloadable PDF of over 100 photographs, the writing is strong enough to carry the audio, but the images are the true heart of the project.
I finished Cats of the World on a quiet evening when I needed something that restored a certain faith in humanity. That sounds grandiose for a book about cats, but there is something in the specificity of what Hannah Shaw and Andrew Marttila set out to do here, journeying to thirty countries specifically to document cats and the people who love them, that carries an emotional weight larger than its subject might suggest.
Shaw, known online as Kitten Lady for her neonatal kitten rescue work, and her husband Andrew Marttila, a professional cat photographer whose work has circulated widely on the internet, spent years building toward this project. The audiobook carries a downloadable PDF of over 100 photographs, which is not incidental: this is a photography book adapted for audio, and the images are what give the text its full weight. But Shaw narrates her own writing with such genuine warmth that the audio holds up even when you set the images aside, which is a meaningful achievement for a photography-adjacent project.
Thirty Countries, One Consistent Argument
The destinations range from England’s pubs and cathedrals to Chile’s produce markets, from Turkey’s spice bazaars to South Africa’s streets and mountains. Shaw and Marttila are not doing tourism photography; they are specifically seeking out the cats that inhabit these spaces and the humans who feed, protect, or simply coexist with them. The project is built on a thesis, that compassion is a universal language and that how communities treat their street and community cats reveals something about how they treat vulnerability more broadly, and the travel content is in service of that argument rather than an end in itself.
The range of welfare situations documented is significant. Some countries have sophisticated TNR (trap-neuter-return) networks and deeply embedded community cat culture; others do not. Shaw brings her background in welfare advocacy to these observations without turning the book into a series of indictments. She is more interested in connection than in judgment, and the tone throughout reflects that priority. One reviewer described it as a wonderful book, an inspiring and informative snapshot into how cats are treated in other countries and the people who care for them, which is an accurate account of what it accomplishes.
Hannah Shaw’s Voice as the Organizing Presence
Self-narration is a risk. Authors are rarely trained voice performers, and the qualities that make someone a compelling writer do not automatically transfer to audio. Shaw navigates this better than most. Her delivery is personal rather than performative, and she conveys genuine emotion at moments that are clearly meaningful to her without tipping into sentimentality. The stories she tells from specific countries, individual cats and the humans attached to them, land with the specificity and feeling that only comes from someone who was actually there.
Reviewers consistently describe the written-and-spoken combination as filling their hearts, which is the reaction Shaw was clearly aiming for. That phrase appears in multiple independent reviews, which suggests it is an accurate description of the emotional experience rather than reviewer hyperbole. The book operates on the register of the quietly meaningful rather than the dramatic, which makes it a particularly restoring listen.
The PDF as the Other Half of the Experience
The downloadable PDF of 100-plus photographs is not a bonus feature. It is the other half of the book. Shaw writes about Andrew Marttila’s photography with the eyes of someone who has watched him work in dozens of countries and understands what each image cost in terms of time, patience, and proximity. Reading the text and then seeing the image, or seeing the image and then understanding its context through Shaw’s writing, creates a loop of comprehension that neither medium achieves alone. Listening to the audio while having the PDF open is the optimal way to experience this project.
K. Anderson, one reviewer, described being so moved by the images that they picked up their own camera after finishing. That is the response a project like this is designed to generate: the idea that paying attention to ordinary things, cats in markets, cats on cathedral steps, cats in places you have never been, can be a form of practice in noticing what is worth noticing.
Who Will Love This and Who Should Look Elsewhere
If you are looking for photography instruction, this is not that. If you are a cat person, a travel enthusiast, or someone interested in cross-cultural approaches to animal welfare and human community, this is deeply rewarding. The combination of Shaw’s advocacy background, Marttila’s extraordinary photographic eye, and Shaw’s warm narration makes for something rare in the photography-adjacent audiobook space. Pair it with the PDF and give it an evening where you have nowhere to be.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the downloadable PDF of photographs essential for enjoying the audiobook, or does the text stand alone?
The text stands on its own merits: Shaw is a strong writer and narrator, and the stories are compelling without the images. But this is fundamentally a photography book, and the 100-plus photographs in the PDF give the written content its full weight. The optimal experience combines both, ideally in the same sitting.
Does the book address cat welfare advocacy directly, or does it stay on the experiential travel and photography side?
Shaw’s welfare background surfaces naturally throughout, particularly in how she observes and describes the different cat welfare situations across thirty countries. But she approaches it with curiosity rather than advocacy rhetoric. The book is more interested in connection and compassion than in delivering judgments about how different countries treat their cat populations.
How does Hannah Shaw’s self-narration compare to professional narration in audiobooks of this type?
Unusually well. Self-narration succeeds here because Shaw is narrating her own lived experience, and the personal investment comes through clearly in her voice. She conveys genuine emotion without overperforming. Listeners who find self-narration occasionally amateurish in other contexts will likely find this a pleasant exception.
Is this audiobook appropriate for children who are cat enthusiasts?
The content is suitable for older children and teens who are cat lovers, though some sections discuss animal welfare situations that may require context. The tone is warm and the writing is accessible, but the primary audience is adult readers who bring a context of global travel and cross-cultural curiosity to the material.
