The Cat Who Saved Books
by Sosuke Natsukawa, translated by Louise Heal Kawai
DETAILS: Series: The Cat Who..., #1 Publisher: HarperVia Publication Date: December 07, 2021 Format: Hardcover Length: 198 pg. Read Date: October 1-2, 2025
Suddenly the cat spoke.
“Books have a soul.”
Its beautiful eyes seemed to capture the light of the stars and they, too, twinkled in the darkness.
“A book that sits on a shelf is nothing but a bundle of paper. Unless it is opened, a book possessing great power or an epic story is mere scraps of paper. But a book that has been cherished and loved, filled with human thoughts, has been endowed with a soul.”
“A soul?”
“That’s right,” replied the cat emphatically.
What’s The Cat Who Saved Books About?
Rintaro Natsuki, a high school student, finds himself the proprietor of a used bookstore after the death of his grandfather/guardian. It’s a bit too much for him to handle—and he’s going to have to move, anyway—so he plans to close it.
But before he gets that far, a cat appears in the store and starts talking to him. Not just talking to him, but telling Rintaro that he needs to accompany the cat to go rescue books. On the one hand, it’s ridiculous for the teen to follow the cat into a mysterious and strange reality to do this. But also…I sort of figure that if a cat starts talking to you, you tend to follow along with whatever nonsense it’s telling you.
The pair go off on a short series of adventures to…well, save books from people who aren’t treating them the right way (another reason to go along with the cat). This is hard to explain in a satisfactory way, at least in my reckoning. It makes utter sense when you see it in action.
Translator’s Note
There are a few pages from the translator at the end of the book, describing some of the choices made. I found it fascinating—and would’ve gladly read another 15+ pages about it. But it’s probably good we didn’t get all of that—leave a little mystery to her craft, right?
But what I learned about the Japanese language—and a little bit about the culture—it just made me want to learn more.
So, what did I think about The Cat Who Saved Books?
In the local doctor’s opinion, he’d most probably suffered a heart attack and died quickly.
“He passed away peacefully.”
If you combined the kanji character for “go” with the one for “live,” you got a strange-looking word meaning “to pass away.” Somehow seeing this word was what had shaken Rintaro the most; it struck him as out of place.
Okay, so I don’t want to say much about this book because it’s really one of those that you have to find your way through and experience.
But I do want to say a little. The magic system makes no sense. I don’t understand why Rintaro gets recruited. I don’t understand his aunt’s role in anything, or how Rintaro actually accomplishes anything, what happens to the books he and the cat save, or the brevity of their campaign. The encounters with the people they’re saving books from are entirely too short and are all anticlimactic. I probably have more to say along those lines, but you get the gist. Basically, Sosuke Natsukawa needs someone like Gareth Brown, R.F. Kuang, or Peng Shepherd to come in, expand on his ideas and fill in all the stuff that would make this make sense and cohere.
Here’s the thing, though. And this is important.
I do not care about any of that. Not a lick of it. It doesn’t matter—and this is a conversation I had with myself at least a half-a-dozen times while reading the book, and I always came to the same conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I loved what it said about reading, books in general, the writing of them, the importance of them, the kinds of books to be produced and why. I enjoyed the book, it warmed my heart and made me smile. There was sweetness, there was whimsy, and it just didn’t matter that none of it made sense. It’s entirely possible that addressing my issues would’ve ruined the book—it almost certainly would ruin it.
Go, grab it, and bring a warm glow to your inner bibliophile. It’s a gem.
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