The Guest Cat

The Guest Cat, a book about the fleeting essence of existence and unique but profoundly felt ways of living, written by the renowned poet Takashi Hiraide, was a bestseller in France and the recipient of Japan's Kiyama Shohei Literary Award. It is very beautiful and delicately affecting. A thirtysomething couple, who no longer have anything to say to each other, work from home as freelance copy editors in a tiny, quiet neighbourhood of Tokyo. However, one day a cat shows up in their little kitchen by invitation. It disappears, but it returns the next day, and the day after that. Before long, people will be purchasing cat snacks and relishing conversations about the creature and all of its quirks. The husband and wife's life now appears more promising; the days are brighter and more colourful. The book is filled with brand-new, little pleasures and several instances of breathtaking lyrical beauty, but suddenly something occurs.

Takashi Hiraide's work, as noted by Kenzaburo Oe, "really shines." Here, his poetry has been praised for "its seemingly endless string of shape-shifting objects and experiences,whose splintering effect is enacted via a unique combination of speed and minutiae." It is strikingly cross-hatched with beauty.