Book Review
Title: The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa
Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating: 5 Stars
The Travelling Cat Chronicles is something that always pops up when I ask for recommendation for Japanese literature but I have never picked it up before mainly because the main narrator is a cat. However, I have read other books like War Horse where an animal is the main narrator and loved them so I finally decided to pick this up. We are introduced to Satoru Miyawaki who finds a cat sleeping on his van one day and begins trying to befriend it, he eventually succeeds through food but we quickly realise that it is the cat telling the story not Satoru. After weeks of befriending the cat, it gets hit by a car and one of its back legs is badly broken so it goes to Satoru for help who takes it to the vet and cares for the cat while it is recovering. The cat believes that it has to leave when it has recovered but Satoru wants the cat to be his pet and the cat agrees. Satoru had a similar looking cat when he was a child named Hachi and he decides to name this cat, Nana, even though it is a girl’s name and the cat is male. They live comfortably together for five years but then something happens although we don’t know what it is that is possibly going to separate Nana and Satoru but before we learn what it is, the pair set off on a road trip.
The first person they visit is Satoru’s childhood friend, Kosuke. While Kosuke asks why Satoru can’t keep Nana anymore he only gets a vague response so we the readers still don’t know the reason for Nana being given to someone else. Satoru and Kosuke have been friends since they were children and we soon learn the story of how they came to find Hachi. One day while attending a swimming club, Kosuke finds a box with two kittens in it and he and Satoru decide to come back after swimming to see if the kittens are still there. When they return one has been taken leaving only one behind, Kosuke wants to take it home but his father won’t let him keep the cat. Satoru comes up with the plan that they will run away until Kosuke’s father agrees to let him keep the cat. After giving their parents the run around, the boys end up on the roof of the school where Satoru tells their parents that Kosuke is threatening to jump from the roof unless he can keep the cat. Kosuke isn’t actually saying anything but he decides it is probably better for Satoru to take the cat and his parents agree. Satoru raised Hachi with Kosuke coming round very often to see the cat but when Satoru’s parents die in a car accident, he has to move with his aunt and they can’t keep Hachi so he is given to another relative who looks after him until Hachi is ultimately hit by a car and dies.
Kosuke sees Nana as a replacement for Hachi which is why Nana isn’t keen on staying with him. Kosuke all his life has had a troubled relationship with his father even after he took over the family business because his father interferes a lot. He went as far as insulting Kosuke’s wife after she had a miscarriage which is why she is currently living with her parents. Satoru suggests that Kosuke and his wife go and find their own new cat rather than taking Nana in, which helps Kosuke start to fix his marriage. As they head off to their next destination, we can see Nana and Satoru are both very perspective picking up on what other people want and need.
The next person Nana and Satoru visit is Daigo Yoshimine, another childhood friend of Satoru’s. Yoshimine is a farmer and is looking for a mouser since the kitten he already has, Chatran, seems to be useless at it. Satoru instantly notices how roughly Yoshimine treats Nana but that is only because he sees them for what they can do for him rather than as pets. We learn that Yoshimine and Satoru went through similar circumstances growing up, although Satoru had it harder because his parents died instead of getting divorced but they both found someone they could lean on when this got to hard for them to deal with alone. Yoshimine who lived with his grandmother during this time became good friends with Satoru so much so that Yoshimine’s grandmother was also Satoru’s grandmother and both taught Satoru a lot about farming which ran in their family. The pair discuss a school trip they once went on where Satoru wanted to make the journey to visit Hachi and they attempted it but were caught and Yoshimine took the blame for it. Despite living quite far away from each other they have always maintained contact which was a nice thing to see. During this time, Nana attempts to teach Chatran everything he needs to know about hunting and fighting in the hopes he might be useful for Yoshimine. However, the humans see this as the cats not getting along and Satoru decides it might not be best for Nana to stay with Yoshimine but he does agree that if no one else will take Nana then he will return to the farm. Before setting off for their next destination they stop at the sea where Satoru learns that despite liking the sea from a distance, Nana definitely doesn’t like it up close.
The next people Satoru and Nana pay a visit to are Shusuke Sugi and his wife Chikako. Sugi and Chikako run a pet friendly hotel and live there with their dog, Tora and their cat, Momo. These are more of Satoru’s childhood friend although this time it is high school, and it turns out that for the longest time Satoru had a crush on Chikako but was asked by Sugi to not say anything about his feelings for her because he also had feelings for her and Satoru complied. While he is staying there he brings this up to Sugi who asks him never to say anything to Chikako about it and again Satoru agrees. From the moment they arrived despite his normal nice nature, Tora seems to dislike both Satoru and Nana despite living with a cat and having lots of cats around him on a regular basis. While the humans are discussing things the next morning they try once again to get Nana and Tora to interact which leads to a fight. While all the humans hear is barking and hissing between the animals we learn that Tora doesn’t want Satoru there because it upsets Sugi because of the way he acted when he was younger and he lets slip that Satoru smells like he isn’t going to live much longer and knowing dogs can sniff out things like cancer makes this a shocking revolution. Satoru decides that he is going to take Nana home which is disappointing but understandable to his friend and as they are leaving Satoru breaks his promise and tells Chikako that once upon a time he had feelings for her which she finds funny. In the wake of this new information Tora changes his stance on letting Nana stay as he has realises that being there wouldn’t upset Sugi but Nana is determined to go home with Satoru. It seems like Satoru is trying to find a new home for Nana because he is dying and he is also catching up with old friends along the way almost as if he is leaving them with good memories for what is to come.
They only have one person left to see who is Satoru’s aunt in Sapporo, Noriko. However, before heading there Satoru wants to go to Hokkaido first so they board a ferry. There are several animals on this ferry who can all sense that Satoru doesn’t have much time left and this is made clear when he visits the graves of his parents and grandparents. Along the way Nana and Satoru take in some beautiful sights together and Nana reflects on how they have always been on the same wavelength which is why they have gotten along so well over the years. Nana also tells us the reader that he wants to be with Satoru right until the end no matter what as this is going to be their final journey together and he wants to be there as long as possible by Satoru’s side. After taking care of the graves and taking in the sights the pair soon set off to see Noriko in Sapporo. It is here we learn that Satoru has cancer and over the coming months we watch him get sicker and sicker until he is admitted into the hospital and separated from Nana. Nana is heart-broken at this but when Noriko takes him to visit one day he escapes and reverts back to his stray ways in order to stay close to the hospital and Satoru. Eventually, Satoru’s time comes and Noriko manages to get Nana into the hospital for Satoru’s final moments. After he dies we learn that Satoru didn’t tell any of his friend he was sick because he wanted their final memories of him to be happy which they were and they all make connections with each other including Noriko. Time passes and Nana continues to see Satoru in his dreams until one day Noriko brings home a stray kitten, a female she names Calico and Nana begins training her so that she won’t be spoiled like other house cats but unlike him she will be Noriko’s cat the same way he was Satoru’s cat and will always be.
Honestly, I think the ending of The Travelling Cat Chronicles literally broke me to the point where I was in tears, especially when Satoru mentions that it is almost time for Nana to join him and Nana responds by saying he has one final job to do and that is training Calico to be the cat he knows she has the potential to be. This story is all about bonds, not just the bonds between people but the bonds people can make with their pets, Nana and Satoru’s bond being the obvious one. If you haven’t read The Travelling Cat Chronicles I’d highly recommend it since I missed out on an amazingly beautiful story by putting it off for so long.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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