A beloved Japanese modern classic about our special connection with cats and how they can change our lives over the course of a lifetime

'Cat lovers, prepare to weep' The Times

'A cat classic' Catherine Lacey

'Profoundly real... and beautifully written' Elif Batuman

'Aglow with incidental joys' Rivka Galchen

On a cool summer evening in 1977, Mayumi Inaba hears a forlorn cry. She follows the sound to the banks of Tokyo’s Tamagawa River and finds a newborn kitten dangling from a fence, abandoned. Overcome by tender affection, she takes the cat back to the small apartment she shares with her husband and christens her Mii: so begins an unshakeable bond.

Over the next twenty years, we follow Inaba, a poet and novelist by moonlight, as she pursues quiet solitude and a room of her own. Through it all, Mii, a fiercely independent creature in her own right, is her confidante and muse.

This beloved Japanese modern classic is not just a love letter to companionship: it’s a poignant, searching meditation on the forces that enable us to connect, to create and to build a life.

‘Reveals the profound respect, and compassion, that a friendship with an animal can inspire’ Sigrid Nunez, New Yorker

Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori