The Blanket Cats
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
"Utterly charming . . . I would read a hundred of these stories." —Shelby Van Pelt, New York Times bestselling author of Remarkably Bright Creatures
Seven struggling customers are given the unique opportunity to take home a "blanket cat" . . . but only for three days, the time it’ll take to change their lives.
A peculiar pet shop in Tokyo has been known to offer customers the unique opportunity to take home one of seven special cats, whose "magic" is never promised, but always received. But there are rules: these cats must be returned after three days. They must eat only the food supplied by the owner, and they must travel to their new homes with a distinctive blanket.
In The Blanket Cats, we meet seven customers, each of whom is hoping a temporary feline companion will help them escape a certain reality, including a couple struggling with infertility, a middle-aged woman on the run from the police, and two families in very different circumstances simply seeking joy.
But like all their kind, the "blanket cats" are mysterious creatures with unknowable agendas, who delight in confounding expectations. And perhaps what their hosts are looking for isn't really what they need. Three days may not be enough to change a life. But it might just change how you see it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Japanese author Shigematsu (Knife) offers a touching collection of linked stories about a Tokyo pet store that rents out cats for three-day terms. There are rules to follow: cats are not to be fed food other than the special kind the store supplies, and renters must never wash the cat's blanket—though the penalties for not following these rules remain unclear. In "The Cat Who Sneezed," Norio, 40, who's unable to have children with his partner, Yukie, comes to realize that having a pet is hard, thankless work, after the cat they rented shows no interest in the tower they bought for it. "The Cat Who Knew How to Pretend" follows a woman named Hiromi who rents a cat to stand in for her family's recently deceased pet tabby, a ruse for the benefit of her senile grandmother. Ryuhei, the recently unemployed protagonist of "The Cat Dreams Were Made Of," hopes the cat he rents will keep his children happy as they prepare to move into a smaller home, but the gambit fails miserably. Shigematsu adds depth and intrigue by avoiding sentimentality, so that when a story does contain a happy ending or a moment of comfort for the characters, it feels genuine. Fans of "healing fiction" like Hiro Arikawa's The Travelling Cat Chronicles will find much to enjoy.
