Review: The Travelling Cat Chronicles

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

3.5 Stars

The Travelling Cat Chronicles tells the story of a cat (a boy cat!) named Nana and his beloved owner Satoru. The story is told from the perspective of Nana, who starts out as a stray befriended by Satoru, who then takes Nana in after he is hit by a car and incurs a serious leg fracture. The two become very attached to each other and spend a happy five years together. That's just the prologue. For reasons Nana doesn't quite understand, after many apologies, Satoru packs Nana up in his travel basket and begins to travel around with him, connecting with various childhood friends and ultimately with his Aunt Noriko, who raised him after Satoru's parents died when he was a child. It is clear he is looking for a new home for Nana and Nana doesn't really understand why. The reason and urgency for the visits becomes obvious to the reader as the story progresses, for there is only one reason a devoted cat parent would be looking for a new home for their dearest furry friend.

This is a sweet story but the dialog felt so stilted at times (especially notable when Nana is hit by the car) that it diminished my enjoyment of the book. I'm not sure, since the novel is translated from the Japanese, if this is because of the caliber of the translation, or is in part because of underlying linguistic differences that can plague translations.

This is a quiet story with some charm that will certainly have cat lovers tearing up by its end.

I received a copy of this book from Berkley via Edelweiss, along with a paper ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

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