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The Cat Who Saved Books

The Cat Who Saved Books

AnimalsFolklore
Pages
224
Published
2021
Language
English

Synopsis

Rintaro Natsuki is a shy, bookish high-school boy who has just lost his beloved grandfather, the owner of a small, cluttered secondhand bookshop called Natsuki Books. Withdrawn and unsure how to face the world, Rintaro shuts himself away among the shelves — until a talking tabby cat named Tiger strides in and demands his help.

Together, boy and cat set out through a series of strange, labyrinthine quests to rescue books from people who have imprisoned, neglected, or betrayed them: a man who hoards volumes he'll never read, a scholar who chops books into digestible summaries, a publisher who cares only for profit. With each journey, Rintaro learns something about courage, empathy, and why stories matter.

Sōsuke Natsukawa's gentle, whimsical fable is a love letter to books and the readers who cherish them.

Prose complexity
1/10

Vibe

WhimsicalCozyHeartwarmingReflectiveHopeful

Genres

Animals Folklore Magical Realism Fantasy Literary Fiction

About the author

S
Sosuke Natsukawa

Sosuke Natsukawa is a Japanese physician and novelist, born in Osaka Prefecture in 1978. He graduated from the school of medicine at Shinshu University and practises in the largely rural prefecture of Nagano. His debut, Kamisama no Karute (God's Medical Records, 2009), won the Shogakukan Bunko Novel Prize, placed second in the Booksellers' Award and has sold more than three million copies in Japan. The Cat Who Saved Books (2017), in which a boy and a talking tabby cat set out to rescue neglected...

Characters

Rintaro NatsukiProtagonist

A grieving, bookish boy who inherits his grandfather's bookshop.

The TigerSupporting

A talking tabby cat who enlists Rintaro to rescue books.

Sayo YuzukiSupporting

Rintaro's classmate who joins his quests.

All characters in The Cat Who Saved Books

Frequently asked questions

  • Is this book part of a series?

    This story is the first entry in a series that continues with The Cat Who Saved the Library, which features a different protagonist navigating a new set of challenges involving a library.

  • Does this book have any connection to other famous Japanese cat literature?

    The title and premise pay homage to a long tradition of Japanese literature featuring cats, most notably Natsume Soseki's classic I Am a Cat, which similarly uses a feline perspective to observe and critique human society.

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