“The Goodbye Cat” (Berkley Hardcover) by Hiro Arikawa, translated by Philip Gabriel, will be released in October.
In the much-anticipated follow-up to the bestselling and beloved “The Travelling Cat Chronicles,” seven cats weave their way through their owners’ lives, climbing, comforting, nestling, and sometimes just tripping everyone up in this uplifting collection of tales by international bestselling author Arikawa.
Against the backdrop of changing seasons in Japan, we meet Spin, a kitten rescued from a recycling bin, whose playful nature and simple needs teach an anxious father how to parent his own human baby; a colony of wild cats on a popular holiday island show a young boy not to stand in nature’s way; a family is perplexed by their cat’s undying devotion to their charismatic but uncaring father; a woman curses how her cat will not stop visiting her at night; and an elderly cat hatches a plan to pass into the next world as a spirit so that he and his owner may be in each other’s lives forever.
Bursting with love and warmth, “The Goodbye Cat” explores the cycle of life, from birth to death — as each of the seven stories explores how, in different ways, the steadiness and devotion of a well-loved cat never lets us down. A huge bestseller in Japan, this magical book is a joyous celebration of the wondrousness of cats and why we choose to share our lives with them.
Arikawa is a renowned author from Tokyo. Her novel “The Travelling Cat Chronicles” is a bestseller in Japan and has been made into a feature film.
Gabriel is a highly experienced translator of Japanese and is best known for his translation work with Haruki Murakami.