The Cat Who Saved Booksby Sosuke Natsukawa
Translated from: Japanese
Rating: ★★★★
Series: The Cat Who #1
Publication Date: February 5, 2017
Genre: magical realism
Pages: 198
ReRead?: No
The Cat Who Saved Books is a heart-warming story about finding courage, caring for others – and the tremendous power of books.
Grandpa used to say it all the time: 'books have tremendous power'. But what is that power really?
Natsuki Books was a tiny second-hand bookshop on the edge of town. Inside, towering shelves reached the ceiling, every one crammed full of wonderful books. Rintaro Natsuki loved this space that his grandfather had created. He spent many happy hours there, reading whatever he liked. It was the perfect refuge for a boy who tended to be something of a recluse.
After the death of his grandfather, Rintaro is devastated and alone. It seems he will have to close the shop. Then, a talking tabby cat called Tiger appears and asks Rintaro for help. The cat needs a book lover to join him on a mission. This odd couple will go on three magical adventures to save books from people who have imprisoned, mistreated and betrayed them. Finally, there is one last rescue that Rintaro must attempt alone . . .
Sosuke Natsukawa's international bestseller, translated from Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai, is a story for those for whom books are so much more than words on paper.
Translated from the Japanese, this felt almost like a parable or a fairy tale. I also learned a new word, hikikomoro, which refers to (per wikipedia) “are reclusive adolescents or adults who withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement.”
Overall, I found the book quite charming, and I enjoyed the main character, Rintaro, and his two friends who are trying mightily to pull him out of his hikikomori lifestyle and back into a community that values him more than he knows. The talking cat, Tiger the Tabby, was fun, although he didn’t have as much of a presence as I would have liked.
I am a bit puzzled by the fact that all of the books mentioned were western classics – a lot of British lit (Jane Austen, Samuel Johnson), American (John Steinbeck) and Russian (Dostoevsky). I don’t think that there was a single Japanese title identified. I am sure that Japan has it’s own supply of beloved classic literature, so I found this curious.
The bookshop at the heart of the story, Natsuki Books, Rintaro’s inheritance after the death of his grandfather, was delightful. The language used was very simplicitic, and I don’t know if this is a result of the fact that the book was translated from the Japanese, or if it was a stylistic choice on the part of the author, but either way, the book would be an easy read for a young adult reader, or for someone learning English as a second language.
All (and I really do mean all, not that there are that many) book I’ve read translated from the Japanese, and one from Chinese, are sparse and “simplistic” in their language. I was told by someone who often reads Japanese literature in Japanese that that is how they write their novels. 🤷🏻♂️
I thought that this might be case, but interesting that you can confirm. I have a couple more Japanese novels on my fairly immediate TBR.
I’m not sure how I feel about it, though. I prefer my language to be a bit more fluid and flowery than that.