Quick Reads: The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa

When summer receded this year, I found myself wanting to read something fantastic and low-key and, yes, heartwarming. Maybe something fictional about books, and possibly—why not?—cats.

That is probably why The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa caught my eye. Its young and hesitant hero, Rintaro Natsuki, is described as “a bookish highschooler,” a hikokomori. That is one who’s pulled inward or is socially withdrawn.

When his grandfather dies, Rintaro finds himself the unwilling proprietor of a second-hand bookstore. And not just any bookstore. What is Natsuki Books exactly? A failing business, outmoded and about to teeter into bankruptcy, or a beacon for minds, a precious necessity in the world? The labyrinths that Rintaro becomes drawn into by an opinionated talking cat address those very questions and many more besides. Yes, a talking cat. Who could ask for anything better?

Translated from the Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai, the book delivered little hints of idiomatic foreignness that could easily have felt laboured. Instead, they added to the charm, as if I were a tourist venturing into this odd little place. This is a story of loving yet understated relationships. It allows for ambiguities and uncertainty because its hero is filled with them, and so the reader is allowed to embrace them as well. A quick, gentle story about the meaning of books, the whimsy of cats, and in the person of Sayo, Rintaro’s classmate, a relentless and contagious optimism that refuses to back down.