Found this book fascinating and very different! This is a very interesting story, and very clever the way the various characters link up. Amazing insight into Japanese culture too and the descriptions are so well written you do feel totally immersed in the environment. A little ‘near the knuckle’ for an old prude like me at times, but was necessary to depict the various sectors of society . Recommended.

Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Two Stars

In all fairness to this book, I spent most of it comparing it to other works of Japanese literature I'm familiar with, primarily Murakami (because it feels like it's trying really hard to be Murakami) and that's a hard act to follow. But it also didn't do it for me, at all. I jumped at the chance to read this because I thought the idea of snippets of lives that somehow cross paths with this tortoise-shell cat in Japan sounded cool! Turns out the cat isn't so much a motif or a thread; just a coincidental object each story shares. Fine, but the individual stories weren't working for me either.

I made it three short stories in (a fair percentage through the book), but none of them clicked, whether it be the pacing, the themes, the characters etc. The fact that most of what I was expecting was hindered on the cat motif or a cultural exploration of Japan (which from a Western perspective is already ambiguous) meant that I was disappointed. It might have the setting, socio-political events and I guess references of Japan, but it doesn't feel like it has the heart, and isn't offering anything else besides to hold my interest.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atlantic Books for this advanced reader's copy in return for my honest review. Such a sweet captivating book. I loved the idea of a stray cat walking through the streets, connecting and intertwining the stories of everyone it meets. As a big cat lover myself I adored this book.

I simply loved this book. The beautiful way that the stray cat is used in the book to intertwine narratives and stories of different people and their lives is a wonderful tool. The writing is brilliant and the story is interesting and refreshing. Excellent read and will be recommending this!

A clear and engaging homage to Japanese literature focussing on the cat that is seen in many writers work. The figure of the cat walks through Bradley’s writing and there are scenes reminiscent of Japanese authors such as Murakami.

I found this novel rather unremittingly dark and kept pushing my way through until I reached the end in the hope that it would all tie together in a brighter ending. It does, but it's brief and, for me, simply doesn't balance the bulk of the book. SO many sad people. SO many dark tales. It's a shame to focus only on the dark in a city filled with people where there must also be light, and joy. It's clever, no doubt, and the writing is elegant, but I felt like sighing every time I picked it up to read a little more.

*3.5 stars*
I was drawn into this story from everything about it; the name, the cover, the description. This book follows a cat roaming around Tokyo; watching the lives of people throughout the city, giving the reader a snippet into each incredible tale of many residents that often overlapped each other. The intricacy involved in connecting each short story to evolve into one timeline is what makes this so unique and fascinating to read. Besides being a great plot line, the execution held up with beautiful writing that was an easy read and a great level of depth seen for each and every character within the story despite a smaller page count.
I didn't expect to see the dark themes that showed up throughout the book but their existence conducted a deeper connection to the character I was reading about as sometimes they did merge into one another and I wasn't entirely sure who was who. This book started out incredibly strong with captivating tales that stretched the imagination, however I was left confused which I didn't entirely mind as I expected an explanation would arise towards the end, it did not. The ending was so abrupt that I had to check I hadn't skipped a page or two, this left me feeling very disorientated; hence the lower final rating.
I thoroughly enjoyed every short story within this book and really did enjoy the book as a whole. I wish that there was a little more explanation and that the ending was fleshed out more to create some sort of closure for the reader. This book is like none I have ever read and I would definitely recommend to anyone interested!

The structure of this book reminded me of Ray Bradley's Illustrated Man, in that the stories were all represented by a spread out tattoo and the beginning and end came full circle, albeit the ending was rather brief. There were some translator's notes, which explained a play on words in one instance although the author isn't Japanese and this might have been added as a folly.

The stories are all connected by a cat, who moves around in the tattoo. The first story was very good and kept my interest, but some of the subsequent stories went into crudity and one involved killing cats which pushes all my revulsion buttons. Overall it has the tone as if it were translated from Japanese and had a lot of local knowledge of Tokyo, but after the first story I didn't find the others enjoyable at all.

Fairly enjoyable short story collection set in Tokyo, all revolving around a cat.
Many of the stories interlink and there is an overarching connecting narrative.

The cover is very pretty but beware -
Some of the short stories were more enjoyable and better written than others. I found many to be much darker in tone and content than I had expected from the cover and blurb - including unwanted sexual groping, alcoholism and abortion. In this way it demonstrated the more sinister side of the city very well, however for me the fewer lighter moments failed to resonate. The darker issues were interesting to explore but overall I thought it lacked balance.

The ending and conclusion also felt flat and unsatisfying. The writing gave a lot of detail about the feelings of a character just introduced and but not the events that had transpired. I would have preferred be told what had happened and allow my own interpretation the emotional impact / character's feelings rather than vice versa.

I read and enjoy a lot of Japanese translations, to me this did seem like a western imitation.

However despite these issues the book held my attention well, I enjoyed the variety of different stories weaving together and found it a good read.

Wow what a ride! I finally had the chance to finish this gem and it was so worth it - strong hints of "Before the Coffee Gets Cold" and the movie "Crash" (2004).

The story starts off in a tattoo parlour where a young girl called Naomi requests a tattoo of the streets of Tokyo, a job the artist takes seriously but not without adding a single hidden little detail - a tiny calico cat. Trouble is, the cat keeps moving from one spot to another which kicks off a series of interwoven short stories featuring the mysterious cat and characters who are all connected in strange ways.

I was absolutely hooked from the first chapter and grown very attached to everyone. The characters had very distinct personalities and the well written settings really made them "pop".

There has been a spike in the popularity of Japanese and Korean literature recently and I think The Cat and The City will really shine amongst some other gems in the genre. I'm really looking forward to having this in our store!!

Thank you :))

As a former Tokyo resident I was keen to read this one. It’s a series of linked short stories that circle round each other, cross over, and meet in unexpected ways, much like an unplanned wander around the backstreets and alleyways of that marvellous city. Background characters in one become the lead in the next, and walk past someone who comes to the fore a few dozen pages later and so on. This will be familiar to fans of David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten, and I suspect they will also find a lot to like in the loving depiction of Japanese life here. At times, the book does veer maybe too close to a game of Tokyo Bingo, as the expected landmarks and customs are ticked off, but I never had the impression it was done in a cynical way. In the end, the book is about emotional connections as much as it is narrative ones, and it’s a rewarding experience.

A novel story which seizes the very essence of human nature when we find ourselves in an ocean of people, alone and slowly drowning.

This is the unsparing cycle of a city’s highs and lows channelled through the green eyes of a streetwise Calico cat and narrated by everyone she meets.

The presence of this enigmatic animal brings mostly serendipity, with its characters reclaiming the quality of their lives after overcoming barriers that have separated them from happiness for too long. For a small proportion of others, their future remains uncertain.

Tokyo’s streets may not be paved gold, but with the determined paw prints of a feline that has seen it all and is proof that our endeavours touch more hearts than we might wish to believe.

Those little stitches of connectivity that sew each chapter together shouldn’t be taken for granted. There’s a reason for every one of them in this quirky patchwork of life.

The concept of this book and how its distinctive jigsaw pieces carefully slot together to create the bigger picture is quite inspired.

A thrilling debut novel set on the streets of Tokyo. The Cat and City is a collection of inter-linking stories following different character across the Japanese capital. What connects them is a calico cat slinking its way through the city and into the character’s lives.

This novel was much darker than I had expected – we meet characters across the city from Yakuza gangs to seedy brothels to salarymen working in high rise offices. One chapter follows a homeless man living in an abandoned capsule hotel – the treatment he is shown by the authorities “tidying up the streets” prior to the 2020 Olympics was upsetting and deeply moving. The author doesn’t hold anything back when discussing the isolation felt by people living on the fringes of society in Japan.

I loved seeing the chapters change style with manga cartoons, social media posts and sections told through footnotes. This debut novel is imaginative, evocative and bursting with ideas.

Recommended!

Thanks to Atlantic books for an advanced copy of this novel.

The Cat and The City was such a pleasure to read, thank you very much Netgalley and Atlantic Books for my advance copy.

What at first appear to be separate short stories about people living, working, surviving, looking for love in contemporary Tokyo soon turn out to be intricately linked in compelling and sometimes surprising ways. Set against the backdrop of the upcoming Olympics, the city is changing, beautifying and sweeping up strays while the calico cat of the title wanders in and out of characters’ lives. There are local taxi drivers, a postman, salarymen and office ladies and those who came to Tokyo from the provinces and from abroad. The cast of characters is large and picking up on the many ways in which they are connected was delightful.

Some of the characters visit a particular okonomiyaki place, some work in a PR company tasked with producing materials for the Olympics and some just happen to be on the same train platform for the morning commute. Bradley explores loneliness and alienation in the big city as well as finding a sense of belonging for those who are non-Japanese, half-Japanese or those on society’s margins.

There are also elements of Japanese folklore, stories within stories and manga, exploration of language and meaning of characters in Japanese writing. It’s an impressive debut novel. After finishing, I went back to some of the earlier chapters and discovered further connections between characters that I missed the first time, thought this was just wonderful. Will certainly be getting a paper copy when published (read advance copy on kindle).

Highly recommended, four and a half stars.

Very charming, although unusual and quirky book, with a series of interconnected characters and stories, all showing a rapidly changing Tokyo on the eve of the 2020 Olympic Games. On the whole, it manages to avoid most of the cliches about Japan that foreign authors are prone to fall into and does a good job of conveying the loneliness of the huge, anonymous city. It left me thoughtful and dreamy for a few days after finishing it. But be warned: there is a distressing scene involving a cat getting hurt!

I loved this book and how the short stories fitted together to make a whole. It was so well put together and so intriguing. I also really enjoyed seeing different sides of Tokyo. I could have read it in one sitting.

A unique tale of a green eyed calico cat and its extraordinary journey round Tokyo, the city that never stops.
Stop reading this tale by a new, masterful storyteller? Why would you? A fascinating collage of different styles, insights and language; what a debut!

Thanks to Atlantic Books and NetGalley for my ARC!

I thoroughly enjoyed The Cat and the City. Originally I fell for the description; a story, about a cat in Tokyo, that unfolds in a series of interlocking narratives. The plot begins with Naomi asking for an unusual tattoo — that of a map of the city — and the tattooist noticing that a cat he’d added into the design appears to move every time they meet for a tattoo session. Thus begins a series of short stories that fluidly connect through characters. Part of the fun is certainly in trying to guess or anticipate the next connection, and about two-thirds through, you get a brilliant twist where things wonderfully slot into place as well as throw others out of whack. Having visited Japan twice and stayed in Tokyo for three weeks, I found Bradley’s storytelling of the city to be true and not at all gratuitous. It’s done in such a way that newcomers to the city and those who already know Japanese culture through-and-through could equally find its magic. Moreover I really appreciated the thematic pillar of the 2020 Olympics running throughout.

A delightful book full of stories and characters whose lives criss-cross and intertwine. Tokyo itself is one of the characters and is wonderfully portrayed. The feel of the writing is very Japanese despite the author being western.

I learned some Chinese characters from this book and felt an urge to learn more - though I probably won't of course. It's also a great introduction to Japanese culture - and there's a cat in I - what more is needed?

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If I were to write a one word review, that would be it. A cat appears in story one and then disappears (in the most magical of ways) only to appear again later on. Following this cat soon became my obsession. No, I’m not going mad, this novel is a whimsical story of magical realism and it’s a wonderful way of storytelling. I have since learned that the cat is almost revered in Japan as if it were some kind of god like figure. Now, I understand why and why the symbolism of this cat brings even more to the story that you might realise at first.

This was magical and very different to anything else I've ever read. Oh I think I see to sit and drink some Japanese tea and think of this some more. Maybe i will even get a tattoo of Tokyo on my back. Maybe get the artist to draw a cat there and see where it takes me.

This book has everything and more. Manga, sci-fi., magical realism and stories upon stories. I love this book!