The Cat and The City
“A vibrant & accomplished debut.”
In Tokyo – one of the world’s largest megacities – a stray cat is wending her way through the back alleys. And, with each detour, she brushes up against the seemingly disparate lives of the city-dwellers, connecting them in unexpected ways.
“Ingenious ... touching, surprising and sometimes heartbreaking”
But the city is changing. As it does, it pushes her to the margins where she chances upon a series of apparent strangers – from a homeless man squatting in an abandoned hotel, to a shut-in hermit afraid to leave his house, to a convenience store worker searching for love. The cat orbits Tokyo’s denizens, drawing them ever closer.
A BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick
Longlisted Dublin Literary Award 2021
A Waterstones Paperback of the year 2021
Longlisted Diverse Book Awards 2021
10+ Translations
“The key pleasure of reading this book is its sprightly vigour – cool but not hipsterish, ambitious but not pretentious – that evokes a similar liveliness in the reader. It makes you feel young again.”
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