The Cat and The City

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 :))

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.

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!

I absolutely loved this book and can't believe it's a debut. There are lots of intertwining stories that are connected in clever – sometimes subtle, sometimes clearer – ways that go beyond the cat. I found myself completely immersed in each and every story, despite their short length, but the disappointment of moving on to another story was short-lived as I was immediately drawn into the next. There wasn't one weak story, which can be rare for this type of book!

The interlinking is a brilliant way of demonstrating how in our busy lives, particularly city life, we only see snippets of a stranger's daily life, when they have a whole world beyond this tiny interaction or passing. This can apply to any city, and I completely understand that feeling. And on the other hand, the Tokyo lifestyle and Japanese culture is completely unknown to me, so I loved the insight into this different world that I sometimes couldn't relate to. This was supported by the inclusion of characters from elsewhere – the American translator, and the American husband for example – who are also navigating the city/the culture as an outsider with you. But beyond the obvious outsiders/westerners, even the Japanese characters are outsiders in their own ways, maybe othered by their inability to (or choice not to) conform to Japanese norms, or by society's prejudice against them. Beyond the direct crossovers in the stories, there are so many deeper connections between them, leaving so much to think about and discuss.

This is the kind of book that stays with you long after you've finished reading it. I will definitely be seeking a physical copy of this book when it's published, as it's certainly one for the bookshelf (when it's not being passed around for everyone to read!).

I found this a wonderfully mesmerising and innovative look at perhaps the less well known areas and streets of the giant metropolis that is Tokyo. Although written by ostensibly an outsider, Nick Bradley takes the reader on an insightful journey of understanding and exploration where they can visualise and hear the sights and sounds of the City. In a series of seemingly disparate but actually interconnecting short stories, we see how the wanderings and journey of a stray cat forms the connecting points.

Tokyo in the run up to the 2020 Olympics, is a city of change, determined to present its best face even if that means pushing people and indeed the aforementioned cat further to the margins. All the short stories though ultimately connected are also standalone reads and written in varying styles including manga. Its one of those books where you just sit back and let the author take you on a ride both physically and metaphysically. A book of time and place, it reminded me strangely of a recent rereading of Alfred Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz with its evocation of a changing city and its less glimpsed citizens. Strongly recommended.