Book reviews

Book review: The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

Book Cover

Title: The Travelling Cat Chronicles

Author: Hiro Arikawa

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Publisher: Transworld Digital

Publication date: 2nd November 2017

My rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Summary:

Nana is on a road trip, but he is not sure where he is going. All that matters is that he can sit beside his beloved owner Satoru in the front seat of his silver van. Satoru is keen to visit three old friends from his youth, though Nana doesn’t know why and Satoru won’t say.
Set against the backdrop of Japan’s changing seasons and narrated with a rare gentleness and humour, Nana’s story explores the wonder and thrill of life’s unexpected detours. It is about the value of friendship and solitude, and knowing when to give and when to take. TRAVELLING CAT has already demonstrated its power to move thousands of readers with a message of kindness and truth. It shows, above all, how acts of love, both great and small, can transform our lives.

My review:

What a joy of a book! The writing, characters and plot all mold together to create a beautiful and heartfelt story that I will treasure for a long time. Despite preferring dogs over cats, I could not stop myself from laughing at Nana’s adventures and wishing that I was sitting in the backseat of Satoru’s van and looking out towards the waves just as Nana loves doing. The author flawlessly managed to captivate my attention and open up my mind to how cats think and live, especially during the first chapters where Nana is living on the streets and is skeptical to accept Satoru’s help. Their friendship slowly develops into something beautiful as Nana slowly starts to trust Satoru more, an aspect which I think the author handled with lots of sensitivity and patience.

Some of Nana’s feisty expressions made me laugh out loud and the other more naive thoughts were poignant but very genuine so I am glad that the author decided to explore these too. Loss is difficult for an animal as much it may be for a human and, although it was heartbreaking to see Nana’s confusion over Satoru trying to find another home for him, it also addressed the important issue of how pets cope with losing their owner. Many books discuss losing a pet from the owner’s point of view but few explore loss through a pet’s perspective and it was both admirable and tragic to observe this from Nana’s point of view. It was equally difficult to see Satoru struggle with finding a new owner for Nana but this also weaved a path for exploring Japan’s beautiful scenery, with the unique and fun premise of the book as Nana depicted as the most well travelled cat in Japan.

Sometimes the little details add up to create a beautifully crafted book and this was no exception. For me, the highlights of this book were the little quirks such as Nana wishing for a boxy TV to keep him warm and learning more about Satoru’s adventures with his first cat who he named after the number eight. These small moments added authenticity and made the story come alive, with each character feeling more like a friend. I am extremely grateful to have stumbled across this gem and can only wish that it was more well-known because I am sure that many other cat lovers would love this touching story.

 

6 Comments

Leave a Reply