The Guest Cat by Takashi HiraideMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Guest Cat is a wonderful novel about a visiting cat who brings joy into a couple’s life in Tokyo. Winner of Japan’s Kiyama Shohei Literary Award, The Guest Cat, by the acclaimed poet Takashi Hiraide, is a subtly moving and exceptionally beautiful novel about the transient nature of life and idiosyncratic but deeply felt ways of living. A couple in their thirties live in a small rented cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo; they work at home, freelance copy-editing; they no longer have very much to say to one another. But one day a cat invites itself into their small kitchen. It leaves, but the next day comes again, and then again and again. Soon they are buying treats for the cat and enjoying talks about the animal and all its little ways. The book brims with many moments of staggering poetic beauty, but then something happens…. At times I was completely blindsided by Hiraide and one short paragraph of just 39 words, so full of heartache, left me with eyes brimming.
I cannot stop thinking about The Guest Cat. Captivating. A must for a 2nd read.
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