The small boy next door decides to adopt a stray cat, who he calls 'Chibi'. The story is about a man and his wife who live a quiet life in a small house which is part of a mishmash neighbourhood known as “Lightning Alley”. This simple story about a Japanese couple and the cat that decides to adopt them has become an international best-seller and I was keen to find out why. There is something ethereal and otherworldly about this novella and that is before I've even read a single word. The reflective green material makes the cat's eyes glow and glint eerily in the light. This book has my heart.Summary: A Japanese couple are 'adopted' by a local cat and quickly fall in love with her sweet personality and quirky ways.

The novel brims with new small joys and many moments of staggering poetic beauty, but then something happens….Īs Kenzaburo Oe has remarked, Takashi Hiraide’s work 'really shines.' His poetry, which is remarkably cross-hatched with beauty, has been acclaimed here for 'its seemingly endless string of shape-shifting objects and experiences,whose splintering effect is enacted via a unique combination of speed and minutiae.' Life suddenly seems to have more promise for the husband and wife - the days have more light and color. Soon they are buying treats for the cat and enjoying talks about the animal and all its little ways. It leaves, but the next day comes again, and then again and again. But one day a cat invites itself into their small kitchen. A couple in their thirties live in a small rented cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo they work at home, freelance copy-editing they no longer have very much to say to one another. A bestseller in France and winner of Japan’s Kiyama Shohei Literary Award, The Guest Cat, by the acclaimed poet Takashi Hiraide, is a subtly moving and exceptionally beautiful novel about the transient nature of life and idiosyncratic but deeply felt ways of living.

The guest cat by takashi hiraide