The Cat Who Saved Books

A talking cat asks a shy schoolboy for help in rescuing neglected books.

In The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa, Rintaro Natsuki is left alone with a small second-hand bookshop after his grandfather dies. He hardly goes to school any more and has little desire to do anything, until a talking tabby cat who calls himself Tiger appears between the shelves. Together they enter a series of labyrinths, visiting people who lock books away, flick through them without reading or reduce them to summaries. Each journey asks a little more courage of Rintaro than he thinks he has.

A Japanese novel of fewer than two hundred and fifty pages, translated by Louise Heal Kawai, with the gentle, reflective tone you also find in other Japanese stories about little shops and second chances. Lovely for readers who are looking less for suspense than for comfort and a good conversation about why reading matters. This English edition is a special hardcover with stencilled sprayed edges.