What an absolutely wonderful surprise of a book! This book gave me everything I needed in the moment. Cats, books, Japan… three of my favorite things.
But wait—there’s more. So MUCH more! Read for the fantastic story or read for the message. Yes, many messages on how to live life, but not the least bit preachy. Is it corny if I say it is Zen? The word Zen comes up precisely zero times, but empathy and compassion are mentioned. Again, not in a preachy way at all. The points of the books are proven by dialogues and puzzles. Is it Good vs. Evil? Again, kind of.

A hikikomori loses his grandfather and a talking cat comes along and asks for his help. Books are in danger! And if that premise doesn’t speak to you, then I am not sure I know who you are.

A real wow book… five stars and going on to my Highly Recommended List. And Kudos to the translator… I can see where there must have been some challenges. So glad to get this to the English speaking world!

“A book that sits on a shelf is nothing but a bundle of paper. Unless it is opened, a book possessing great power or an epic story is a mere scrap of paper. But a book that has been cherished and loved, filled with human thoughts, has been endowed with a soul.”

Rintaro Natsuki, a reclusive high school student, inherits a bookstore when his grandfather passes away. Then a talking cat appears and demands his help in rescuing books from their misguided owners.

This was a short, whimsical read with a message that will appeal to all book lovers. There is a strong streak of magical realism - talking cats aside, Rintaro's adventures take place in what feel like almost parallel realities, which I enjoyed but may not appeal to all readers.

This book revolves primarily around the idea that books - or at least literature - is getting less popular. To rescue books, Rintaro must negotiate with their owners and persuade them to change their ideas about them. In the process, there are a lot of meditations on the importance of books and why tough books are worth the struggle to read them.

Though Rintaro is the main focus of this novel, he is accompanied by his classmate Sayo on some of the adventures. They make a fun pair as they contrast greatly in character and their approaches to problems, but still work together well. I also liked the so-called 'bosses of the labyrinth' (so-called by me, at least!) and how they represented different ways to love books - though they had to unlearn their mistaken beliefs.

Unfortunately, the titular cat was the weak point of this novel. Tiger comes and goes out of nowhere, which is fine by me, but he also does not have much of a presence beyond serving as a guide down the passageway and giving out dire warnings. Also he is quite rude.

This was originally written in Japaense, and the translator is Louise Heal Kawai. I thought the writing was lovely, but something dialogue felt a little stilted - but it did not take away my enjoyment of the book.

Overall, an endearing read for book lovers of all stripes.

Simply put, this book is Narnia for bibliophiles. Readers follow Rintaro Natsuki as he saves books with the help of a witty tabby cat. While he does not physically fight monsters with weapons or magic, Rintaro uses his love for books and contemplative rhetoric to banish modern views of books. The story dragged at some points and I found myself taking longer-than-usual breaks between chapters. Though, every time I picked it up, I was excited to see where Rintaro went next. This is a perfect book to read on a slow Sunday.

I recently got my first cat and I loved the fact that I could read a book based around cats while my own was causing mischief. It took a bit longer to get through it due to her antics but it was a very enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC which I received in return for an honest review.

Rintaro is a self-described hikikomori, or someone who prefers social isolation. Since his grandfather died, he burrows more into this way of living. The adventures on which he embarks with a talking cat serve as a way to engage him in problem-solving and decision-making. But, more than that, I couldn't help but wonder if this book is a quiet commentary on the enjoyment of reading and the publishing industry.

On their first journey, Rintaro meets a man who reads every book he can get his hands on. This man views the number of books read as a status and power symbol, putting them on display for all to see how much he's read. The second man Rintaro encounters literally trims down books to their essence to help people read more books in a shorter amount of time. And the third man Rintaro meets only cares about and publishes books, or book formulas, that he knows will fly right off the shelves. Rintaro must convince them that these ways of thinking don't do justice by the books or for the readers.

This is an interesting way of presenting how it can feel like current society's group thought is to just keep running, just keep comparing yourself to others, and go with the status quo. Rintaro is the person who encourages these men (and the reader) to take a step back, to enjoy a story for all of what it is. In reality, the number of books you can read doesn't mean you're better than someone else. Take the time to enjoy the full story and don't worry about how fast you can read a book. And if what's popular isn't your cup of tea, then there are plenty of new and old stories from which to choose; what you read doesn't have to fall into a current bestseller category.

Though the outcome of each adventure is more or less predictable, and the plot isn't complicated. But hopefully this story will make you stop and think for a minute about its larger meaning. The characters are a little flat and not super memorable, but it's not offputting. It's a calm, easy read--a nice palate cleanser, if you will, if you're coming off reading several books in a row from the same genre.

3.5 stars rounded down to 3 stars.

After the death of Rintaro Natsuki's grandfather, he is ready to let go of most of the outside world. He has stopped attending school and holed up completely in his grandfather's old bookshop. In just a few short days, an aunt he barely knows will be sending a moving company to collect him and his belongings and bring him to her house to live, so Rintaro has decided to close the bookstore. As a couple of his classmates swing by to become his final customers (or, well, mostly just to check on him), a strange cat appears and beckons him on an unforgettable adventure.

With captivating green eyes that Rintaro just can't say no to, Tiger brings Rintaro a cryptic but urgent message - in a human language nonetheless - that his help is desperately needed to save legions of books. Tiger leads him back through a windy corridor in the rear of the bookshop and into a series of labyrinths where Rintaro is faced with a logical mess of reasons that folks just aren't buying books and reading like they used to. Only someone with the deep acquaintance with literature that Rintaro's grandfather instilled in him can adequately combat these half truths and set the books free to be read for generations to come.

<i>The Cat Who Saved Books</i> strives to deliver a sage in Tiger and deeply moral truths about the state of society, but it does come off a bit elitist. As if all books written today are trash and only the legends of generations past are worth their salt. At the same time that it rails against villains who seek to publish books with mass appeal or be overly prescriptive in the purpose of reading or the correct way to read, this book sells a one size fits all guide to determining the worth the worth of a novel based on its universal truth. And it doesn't meet its own standard.

I appreciate the idea that the classics are still worth reading, even if they aren't always "easy," and as an English major, I have thoroughly enjoyed many of the works listed, but I also recognize that there are many ways and reasons to enjoy all sorts of books. Including this one. In particular, if the vocabulary were a little less advanced, I think this could be really enjoyable for middle grade readers and bedtime stories. As it is, if you are a lover of classics looking to lament the way society is slipping into privileging sound bites over long form argumentation and want to relish in the old used bookshop filled with cats vibe, it can be a great Saturday afternoon read.

Much thanks to HarperVia and NetGalley for the review copy.

“Books have tremendous power.” So says Rintaro Natsuki’s grandfather. Unfortunately, Rintaro’s grandfather is dead and Rintaro’s future is uncertain, unlike the future of Natsuki Books, the secondhand bookshop his grandfather ran while he was alive - that’s going to have to close, as Rintaro will be moving away to live with his aunt. Rintaro himself is very close to becoming hikikomori - a self-isolated recluse. Things change when a plump ginger tabby named Tiger comes into Natsuki Books and starts talking to Rintaro. Specifically, Tiger forces Rintaro to help him save some imprisoned books, and that’s when things start to get really magical as Rintaro faces off against various people who commit crimes against books but claim to love them

This is a very quick read, putting me in mind a little of the episodic nature of a manga series. It is clear that the author understands book lovers deeply, and yet also understands the value of living a life beyond books. Some parts of The Cat Who Saved Books almost sound like they’re moralizing, and it’s clear that there are lessons to be learned in each labyrinth Rintaro faces, but the revelations are so beautifully written they’re not even a little bit annoying. That said, because I am reading this book in translation, I cannot be completely sure how much of the style is the author’s and how much is the result of the translator’s efforts (there’s supposed to be a note from the translator at the end, but in the ARC I was provided it was not included), but I like to think that the two together have combined to form the version I enjoyed reading. And I have definitely enjoyed this book, and know several people to whom I would recommend it or give it as a gift. Who knows? Maybe it will even become something that they cherish.

Let me preface that I absolutely hate magical realism, with the exception of when a Japanese author writes them. For people who love books (which I assume is anyone reading this), this will charm the pants off of you.

Rintaro is our protagonist. He is a teen who just lost his beloved grandfather. For the short term Rintaro is working at the bookstore that his grandfather owned until it officially closes. One morning an orange tabby cat walks in and asks Rintaro to go to another realm and save books from owners who might not deserve them. He might not be able to return, but decides to go along with these missions.

This takes Rintaro, and a high school friend of his and the cat on extraordinary journeys. With each one he has to overcome selfish, uncaring people who take for granted to the books they read and hold, until his last test, which is hardest of them all.

This book takes on many meanings. Yes, we all want to save the books, but it poses another question, of what happens to the lives of the people after these meetings.

Any book lover will adore this short book. I found myself smiling throughout the entire read. Rintaro discovers his true self within these pages and it is fun to watch. Just go read this one, you will not regret it.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperVia for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

For more reviews and bookish posts visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa (translated by Louise Heal Kawai) is a fantastical story about books, cats, and those who love them. Mr. Natsukawa livins in Nagano, Japan where he is a practicing doctor, as well as an award winning author.

The grandfather of high-school student Rintaro Natsuke has died. Preparing to close the doors for the secondhand bookstore his grandfather ran for years, Rintaro meets a strange, talking cat who claims to be named “Tiger”.

Tiger claims that he needs Rintaro’s help freeing books which are kept as prisoners by their demented owners. The strange duo, along with class president Miss. Sayo Yuzuki, meets a man who lets his books perish on a bookshelf, a book torturer who cuts the pages out of books to help people speed read, and a publisher who only wants to create bestsellers.

Who doesn’t love books about books?

This novel is a short fable, a feel-good story which was a nice read especially during this time of year. The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa talks of books possessing great powers, not just scraps of paper. They are filled with human thoughts, as well as being endowed with a soul.

There are several short books celebrating aspects of humanity (The Alchemist comes to mind), but this one seemed overly simplistic, without much in between the lines. I wonder if something got lost in translation, as I was waiting for the charm which distinguishes such books from the rest, but it never appeared.

The translations worked well when capturing the sadness of the protagonist at his darkest hour, as well as the sarcasm and aloofness of Tiger (the talking cat). The balance between the sadness, loneliness, and whimsical storytelling is certainly within the pages.

As a bibliophile, I especially wanted to love this book. A book celebrating the importance of books, reading, as well as human interactions.

We all know what it’s like to drown in a beloved book. And many of us spend a significant amount of time trying to find that “next great read”. However, at some point we also have to put the book down and acknowledge the world around us. This is especially true during times of despair, the cat is pushing Renato to find the balance between his internal life, and his neglected external life.

The novel celebrates the love for books, but also celebrates life. One must have both, living and reading, not to fall into despair.

THE CAT WHO SAVED BOOKS by best-selling Japanese author Sosuke Natsukawa has a very clever cover which instantly conveys both the Asian influence and the fantasy element of this story. The main character (aside from the talking cat) is a young, immature high school aged boy, Rintaro Natsuki, who lives in Japan and inherits his grandfather's bookshop. He struggles to adjust to life without much adult support and follows the magical cat to multiple labyrinths where books are imprisoned, severely edited, or discarded if they are unlikely to be profitable. An introvert who is wise beyond his years, Natsuki encourages those involved to see books from a different perspective and to appreciate them for the power they have. That part of the book is lovely, thought-provoking, and even somewhat humorous. However, a neighborhood girl begins to share the adventures and that blossoming attraction adds little to the story of Rintaro's coming of age and willingness to take risks. The premise is intriguing, especially for book lovers, but the pace is a bit slow and the ending less dramatic than it could be. Overall, THE CAT WHO SAVED BOOKS is a fun, undemanding read – it was an Indie Next pick and a December 2021 LibraryReads selection.

Natsuki is a teenager who just lost the grandfather who raised him. One day, in his grandfather's used bookstore, Natsuki is visited by a talking cat who who insists Natsuki come with him on a mind-binding adventure to save the books.

A lovely ode to books and readers, The Cat Who Saved Books is a quick read that may delight fans of novels like The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, The Little Paris Bookshop, and The Midnight Library. I found it a charming reminder to savor the books I read.

When high school student Rintaro Natsuki’s grandfather dies, Rintaro is left alone in the world. His grandfather was the proprietor of a used bookstore, and rather than going to school Rintaro spends listless days in the bookstore. Friends stop by encouraging him to return to school, but Rintaro has no interest. But then a mysterious talking cat shows up and asks Rintaro to help free books. In these bizarre experiences, Rintaro finds his voice and speaks for the value of books. Rintaro discovers that his grandfather really did understand the connection between people and books, because just like people books have souls and can lead people to show empathy and understand things they could only experience through books. Translated from the Japanese, it seemed a little awkward at times, but bibliophiles will still appreciate the search for the value in reading.

"The Cat Who Saved Books", by Sosuke Natsukawa, translated by Louise Heal Kawai, was originally published in Japanese in 2017, and is now available in English translation in the US at @harperviabooks . It follows Rintaro Natsuke, a hikikomori who loves books and the worlds he escapes to through them. The book kicks off when Rintaro's grandfather passes away, leaving behind not only Rintaro, but also their bookstore, Natsuki Books, full of rare, second-hand books, curated throughout his life through love and dedication. Rintaro finds himself lost, and withdrawing more from the real world than even before, when a talking cat approaches him and asks for his help on a quest to save books in need of help.

The book quickly takes a magical realism turn, as Rintaro embarks on four quests to save books from some eccentric charatcers who have forgotten what the love of books really is. But is Rintaro's quest really about saving books, or more about saving himself as he deals with grief and moving on in life? I guess you'll have to read it to find out.

All in all, I found this book to be cute and uplifiting. It does feel a bit simplistic, and it reads more like a middle-grade/ YA novel, but it was a quick read and worthwhile story. Thank you to @netgalley and @harperviabooks for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fun, quick read. I feel that the messages Natsukawa conveys is really profound and made me stop to think about each one. There are a lot of books about books, but this one is different. It's not cheesy or forced, it's simply something we should all (as book lovers) should be aware of. That being said, I do feel like the writing is very bland in terms of plot progression and characters. There is a lot of dialogue, which is usually not a problem for me, but I wanted to understand more of Rintaro's thoughts and emotions. I get that he is a hikikomori (we're told that every few pages it seems), but we're not shown very well how Rintaro is processing all of what's happening. The plot moved very fast without much development between each labyrinth, it felt more like watching a short movie than reading a book because of the lack of depth to everything. I don't know if this is a translation issue, or if this was how Natsukawa intended his book to read. It's just not my cup of tea.

This is a gem of a book. As a librarian I will recommend this book when someone says they are in a reading rut and willing to try something totally different and mesmerizing. If you are willing to give the talking cat a chance, which why not for a 200 page read, and you enjoy stories about book love, then grab this one today

Based structurally on the Greek myrh of the labyrinth, American readers of The Cat Who Saved Books will also feel similarities with the Phantom Tollbooth and the Chronicles of Narnia. However, this version of the archetypal heroic journey is absolutely Japanese.

The concept of hikikomori (shutting out the world) is central to Rintaro Natauki’s quest, and the cat is a his guide as he learns not just about his love for books, but also about their value and his in the larger world. An excellent read for middle grades through adulthood.

Thank you to Sosuke Natsukawa, HarperVia, and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Dry, trite, lazy, pedantic, The Cat Who Saved Books is simultaneously pandering and elitist. It's a Neil Gaiman-esque modern fairy tale about The Power Of Books told without flair, flavor, or imagination.

The prose appears aimed at elementary school readers, yet the message of the book is more in line with professors and college students who protest that no one reads important books anymore, like the works of Shakespeare, William Faulkner, or Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I have no idea who this book is supposed to be for or why anyone bothered to translate it. Talking cats and magical libraries are all over the adult fantasy market, and this book does nothing to redeem either trope.

"Books teach us how to care about others," the main character concludes, in what is supposed to be a grand revelation. The embarrassment of this platitude aside, what really comes across is that books teach us how to judge others, and if you aren't reading the right books, well, you're the reason no one can see talking cats anymore.

Also, if this book is to be taken at face value, only three people in Japan have empathy. Seems like a bit of a stretch. I'd assume there have to be at least five.

(On the upside, at least one character does say, "A talking cat?")

This looked really intriguing, but I’m just not able to focus on it and I don’t think that’s going to change.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance reader copy. My opinions are my own.

An 'Alice in Wonderland' like adventure with criticisms of the modern book industry throughout. ⠀
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You feel instantly that this book is meant for book lovers. The whole of the novel takes place in a secondhand bookstore and another world that is strange, dangerous, and wholly consumed by books. This world - and its books - are in need of saving. ⠀
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As our hero - a HS student who just lost his grandfather - sets out on an adventure to help a cat save books from abstract and allegorical threats, you feel that he himself is being saved in the process.⠀
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This book asks, what does it mean to love books, and within the boundaries of its villains, the answer is explored. You get the sense that there is a right and wrong answer here. One "threat" I was struck by was the man who read a lot of books. I know, it doesn't seem so threatening, but his attitude towards books (reading as many books as possible without engaging with the content, chasing new releases, using how many books he has read more than others as a tool of feeling superior) feels like a criticism of the state of some book spaces. (Not even going to mention the other threat - a person who summarizes books for easy consumption lol) ⠀
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Now, if the point of this short novel (novella?) was to present these allegorical threats and ask the reader, in turn, to examine these behaviors in themselves, then it definitely achieves that goal. If it was meant to create an emotional attachment to the hero or a deeper understanding of the grieving process, then I think the story could have benefitted from more elaboration on the how or why for certain parts of the story. Because of this lack, I was never properly brought into this book. ⠀
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Though the abstract aspects of this novella were interesting, I felt the pacing was clunky and I was left with a feeling of not being fully satisfied. ⠀
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I do feel like if you like the archetype story of a hero's journey or are interested in the question of what does it mean to love books then this read might be for you.⠀

A cute story about the power of books. In the wake of his grandfather's death, homebody Rintaro will soon have to leave their beloved used bookstore behind to live with a distant aunt. But then a tabby cat shows up requesting his help to rescue books, whisking him off on a series of adventures that help him open back up to the world. A fun read for book-lovers with some definite Miyazaki vibes.