The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa

Author: Sosuke Natsukawa 

Title: The Cat Who Saved Books 

Publisher: Picador 

Published: 2021

Pages:220

Genre: Magical Realism 

     Bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the secondhand bookshop he inherited from his beloved grandfather. Then, a talking cat named Tiger appears with an unusual request. The cat needs Rintaro's help to save books that have been imprisoned, destroyed, and unloved. Their mission sends this odd couple on an amazing journey, where they enter different labyrinths to set books free. Through their travels, Tiger and Rintaro meet a man who locks up his books, an unwitting book torturer who cuts the pages of books into snippets to help people speed read, and a publisher who only wants to sell books like disposable products. Then, finally, there is a mission that Rintaro must complete alone...

     You know those books you see and you just know that you are going to read them. Well for me The Cat Who Saved Books was one of those. Just seeing the cover I figured it was going to be a book I was going to enjoy. I have been a fan of Japanese authors for quite some time now, especially within this genre. For me, I really like this blending of the world we know with these magical elements that take you to a whole nother place but within the realms of the book seem completely sensible. I believe such books are a very pure form of escapism you can get lost in something that is both familiar and strange and unusual. When it comes to this book it was also clear that the author has a great deal lover love for the written word and the way in which we choose to store them. It is something that I can identify with having been in love with books as far back as I can remember. 

     When we first meet Natsuki his life is most definitely in a dire place. Having lost everyone he has ever loved he is cut adrift in the world. His only anchor to real life is the bookshop his grandfather owned.  Greif can be a funny old thing, in one part it is a necessary process for us to go through. On the other hand, it can make us feel far more lonely than we thought ever possible and cuts us off from the very people that we need to help us get through these times. And so enters Tiger a cat that has come to help him deal with this whirlwind of emotions. Now for me, Tiger is what I would imagine the cat in my life would sound like if he could talk. Both abrupt and caring with a dose of sarcasm that says I care about you but I don't really want anyone else to know this fact. Together they feel like two halves of a whole. A way to pass through these turbulent times and help Rintaro come to terms with his new place in the world. To some extent, I can see myself reflected back in this book. A little lost but trying their best and with the help of a cat and a great many books might just find their place. 

     This is one of those books that is greater than the sum of its parts. Going in you think this might be just a tale of a mysterious cat trying to save some book. But to me at least it is so much more than that. It's in some ways a tale of how we deal with the death of a family member. But it is also about the time when we are not quite an adult but our teenage years are slipping away from us. How we all struggle to come to terms with the fact that those we got to for help are starting to slip away and how we might just be the ones who need to be giving advice out to those who are coming along behind us. And in a great pile of love, it is about how books help us in so many ways that we can't even consider. How we as readers don't question that books have a life beyond simply being words printed on sheets of paper. They encompass all of who we are. They are there to help us in good times and bad. To not only guide us but entertain and make us laugh out loud no matter who is around us. This is the thing that I think Natsukawa gets and has tried to express to the world through his narrative.

     This is a book about a boy who is lost and a cat who needs a champion for books that can't defend themselves. It is also for its short stature a book that is enlighting and carries some truths about what it means to live a life that is full and happy. There is a sort of religious tone in how we come to respect and feel guided by such books. That in reading we can also become more than the sum of our parts. The Cat Who Saved Books is also about friendship and how in our darkest times it can pull us back from the abyss and save us. All of these things combine to become a tale that I know will stay with me and a place for it  on my forever shelf.