Sometimes you have to leave behind everything you know to find the place you truly belong...
Nana the cat is on a road trip. He is not sure where he's going or why, but it means that he gets to sit in the front seat of a silver van with his beloved owner, Satoru. Side by side, they cruise around Japan through the changing seasons, visiting Satoru's old friends. He meets Yoshimine, the brusque and unsentimental farmer for whom cats are just ratters; Sugi and Chikako, the warm-hearted couple who run a pet-friendly B&B; and Kosuke, the mournful husband whose cat-loving wife has just left him. There's even a very special dog who forces Nana to reassess his disdain for the canine species.
But what is the purpose of this road trip? And why is everyone so interested in Nana? Nana does not know and Satoru won't say. But when Nana finally works it out, his small heart will break…
It took a little while for me to get into this book, but once I did I was hooked. Told from Nana’s point of view, it’s an unsentimental telling of his travels. Even his love for his owner is tempered with the way of a cat.
But Nana knows what he wants, and that means staying with Satoru, no matter what he has to do to make that happen. Though he meets people and pets well worth staying with, he must follow his heart.
But why are they on this journey? Why is Satoru trying to get rid of him? It took me a bit to figure that out. The ending broke me heart, just as it did Nana’s, but the book is still very much worth reading. It’s a poignant telling of the love between a pet and his person.
This book was recommended by
![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
severina2001, and I am so happy that she did so. So, thanks so much severina2001!
Mount TBR 2022 Book Links
Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.
( TBR Book Links 1-55 )
56. Biloxi by Mary Miller
57. Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System by Ian Angus
58. The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa, Philip Gabriel (Translator)
