Thankfully, this wasn't the case with this book. There was a gentle flow in the writing which could have been so easily overwhelmed by the wrong choice in narrators. I loved this deceptively simple story which was beautifully written and seamlessly translated from the original Japanese. 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'. 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'. 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 30s 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 best seller 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