if cats disappeared from the world by genki kawamura

Fans of The Guest Cat and The Travelling Cat Chronicles will also surely love If Cats Disappeared from the World. His other novels are Million Dollar Man and April Come She Will.

His first novel, If Cats Disappeared From The World, has sold over a million copies in Japan and has been translated into eleven languages. This beautiful tale is translated from the Japanese by Eric Selland, who also translated The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide. Genki Kawamura is a bestselling author of three novels. Genki Kawamura's If Cats Disappeared from the World is a story of loss and reconciliation, of one man's journey to discover what really matters in modern life. Because how do you decide what makes life worth living? How do you separate out what you can do without from what you hold dear? In dealing with the Devil our narrator will take himself - and his beloved cat - to the brink. But before he can set about tackling his bucket list, the Devil appears with a special offer: in exchange for making one thing in the world disappear, he can have one extra day of life.

Estranged from his family, living alone with only his cat Cabbage for company, he was unprepared for the doctor's diagnosis that he has only months to live. The rest seemed derivative and banal, with the narrator having lived his life without progressing beyond base-level self-awareness.A beautifully moving tale of loss and reaching out to the ones we love, of one man's journey to discover what really matters in modern life. However, the names of the protagonist’s pets were the most enjoyable part of the book for me.

The book is an easy read, written with humour and a positive message about connecting with others and not wasting hours fiddling about on your phone. The unnamed protagonist is given the chance to make a kind of Mephistophelesian deal with the devil – amusingly dressed in dodgy Hawaiian shirts – who allows him to remove one thing from the world in return for an extra day of life. His closest companion is his cat Cabbage. He has few personal connections, and is estranged from his father following the death of his mother several years earlier. The book is written from the perspective of a young man who discovers that he is dying from a brain tumour. I spotted the book in a branch of Waterstones when I was visiting family, and was attracted by the title, and the cover design.ĭon’t judge a book by its cover! I didn’t much enjoy it, but it was mercifully short. This novel has sold over 1 million copies in Japan, and has been made into a film. “ What would you sacrifice for an extra day of life?”

Translated from the Japanese by Eric Selland

If cats disappeared from the world by genki kawamura