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A Novel
by Sosuke Natsukawa
From the #1 bestselling author in Japan comes a celebration of books, cats, and the people who love them, infused with the heartwarming spirit of The Guest Cat and The Travelling Cat Chronicles.
Bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the secondhand bookstore he inherited from his beloved bookworm grandfather. Then, a talking cat appears with an unusual request. The feline asks for—or rather, demands—the teenager's help in saving books with him. The world is full of lonely books left unread and unloved, and the cat and Rintaro must liberate them from their neglectful owners.
Their mission sends this odd couple on an amazing journey, where they enter different mazes to set books free. Through their travels, the cat and Rintaro meet a man who leaves his books to perish on a bookshelf, an unwitting book torturer who cuts the pages of books into snippets to help people speed read, and a publishing drone who only wants to create bestsellers. Their adventures culminate in one final, unforgettable challenge—the last maze that awaits leads Rintaro down a realm only the bravest dare enter ...
An enthralling tale of books, first love, fantasy, and an unusual friendship with a talking cat, The Cat Who Saved Books is a story for those for whom books are so much more than words on paper.
"Lovers of traditional literature and books themselves will find validation in the lessons Rintaro learns (and teaches), while the story's structure and fanciful nature may hold appeal for a young adult audience more familiar with the conventions of gaming …Cats, books, young love, and adventure: catnip for a variety of readers!" —Kirkus Reviews
"Charming." —Publishers Weekly
"Bibliophiles will dote on this charming import from Japan, smoothly translated by Louise Heal Kawai." —Library Journal
"Natsukawa's empowering Bildungsroman [manages] to be both whimsical and wise." —Shelf Awareness
This information about The Cat Who Saved Books was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Sosuke Natsukawa is a Japanese physician and novelist. He graduated from the Shinshu University medical school and practices medicine at a hospital in the largely rural prefecture of Nagano. His multi-volume debut novel, Kamisama no Karute (God's Medical Records), has won several prizes and has sold over three million copies in Japan. He is the author of the number one international bestseller The Cat Who Saved Books. The Cat Who Saved the Library is the second book in his series featuring Tiger the talking tabby cat.
A few books well chosen, and well made use of, will be more profitable than a great confused Alexandrian library.
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