Book: The Cat Who Saved Books
The Cat Who Saved Books
Sosuke Natsukawa
Louise Heal Kawai (Translator)
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Bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the secondhand bookstore he inherited from his beloved bookworm grandfather. Then, a talking cat appears with an unusual request. The feline asks for-or rather, demands-the teenager’s help in saving books with him. The world is full of lonely books left unread and unloved, and the cat and Rintaro must liberate them from their neglectful owners.
Their mission sends this odd couple on an amazing journey, where they enter different mazes to set books free. Through their travels, the cat and Rintaro meet a man who leaves his books to perish on a bookshelf, an unwitting book torturer who cuts the pages of books into snippets to help people speed read, and a publishing drone who only wants to create bestsellers. Their adventures culminate in one final, unforgettable challenge-the last maze that awaits leads Rintaro down a realm only the bravest dare enter . . .
An enthralling tale of books, first love, fantasy, and an unusual friendship with a talking cat, The Cat Who Saved Books is a story for those for whom books are so much more than words on paper.
Translated from the Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai.
"Cats, books, young love, and adventure: catnip for a variety of readers!" -Kirkus
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I saw this physical book in London, then decided to check out my (digital) library if they got it, didn’t have it but there was an option to request for it, and 3 months later got it. Read it.
It was…. Weird.
I dunno. The real life parts were pretty realistic. But when the cat got involved and going to this “Labyrinth” world things started to get weird. Reading 10 books a day and churning out 50,000 reviews a month or whatever? Weird. Chopping up books to “bite-sized” bits? Weird. Just throwing books out because they don’t sell and it being a danger to people if they walk outside? Weird. Weird weird weird.
Yes, it’s Fantasy and that’s where it goes weird and all but…. It’s still weird.
HOWEVER, one thing I liked about this book is… I’ve always said Japanese authors tend to write books with such obscure open-ended endings that you don’t really know what actually happened. This one was nicely closed up. The underlying message was nice too. Throughout the book I was silently rooting for Rintaro to “just stay, you like it there!”