The story of Nana the cat and his owner, Satoru, as they travel around Japan, visiting Satoru’s friends. I expected a cute, cozy, heart-warming story for pet lovers, and while it certainly starts that way, it ends up being a much more powerful book, and it even had me bawling towards the end.
The beginning of the book feels like a children’s story. It’s a simple tale of a cat being adopted, told largely through the cat’s own thoughts. Hearing the cat’s thoughts—hearing it talking (albeit only to the reader; it’s owner can’t hear it)—made me unsure if this was the right book for me. But the cat has a lovely, sarcastic attitude, and is written by someone who understands cats, so it was just amusing enough to keep going.
And I’m glad I did, as the story develops not just the cat’s story, but Satoru’s as well, and it’s written with a lot of heart. Which only makes it all the more devastating when you get to the heart-breaking parts later on. I thought I knew where the story was going to go, but I was wrong. And before I knew it, I was crying. In part, it’s because I adopted two amazing cats a few years ago, and I love them to pieces, and could see them in this story; in part, it’s because I’ve experienced a tragedy in my own life recently, so this story hit me particularly hard.
It wasn’t an easy read for me, but it was very much worthwhile. I’m now going to go hug my cats.
