The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa

Pages: 256

Publisher: Doubleday 

Released: 12th of October 2023 

Against changing seasons in Japan, seven cats weave their way through their owners' lives ...

We meet Spin, a kitten rescued from the recycling bin, whose simple needs teach an anxious father how to parent his own human baby; a colony of wild cats on a holiday island shows a young boy not to stand in nature's way; a family is perplexed by their cat's devotion to their charismatic but uncaring father; a woman curses how her cat constantly visits her at night; and an elderly cat, Kota, hatches a plan to pass into the next world as a spirit so that he and his owner may be together for ever.

Bursting with empathy and love, The Goodbye Cat explores the unstoppable cycle of life as we see how the steadiness and devotion of a well-loved cat never lets us down. A huge bestseller in Japan, every page is a joyous celebration of cats and how we cannot resist sharing our lives with them.

What I Have to Say 

This was such a cute book. Though it got very sad in places (as you can probably tell from the title of the Goodbye Cat), I enjoyed reading it immensely. I really enjoyed the different personalities of each of the cats and the differences and similarities in the stories. 

As with all short story collections, there were some stories that I loved and some that I didn't like so much. In this book, I really liked the Cat Island story and the one about Hachi. I also enjoyed the last story in the book and I loved the connection between that one and Hachi, being stories about two cats owned at different times by the same owner. 

As with any translated book, it was very different from the style I'm used to in Western works. I feel like Japanese stuff in more thoughtful and is often more told than shown. I think a lot also gets lost in translation. So I wouldn't say the writing was amazing, but I do think a lot of that is down to the type of book and translating it from a Japanese style. 

Overall, if you like cats, this is a good book to choose! 

4 stars 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Doubleday for providing me with this gifted copy for review.