In the much-anticipated follow-up to the bestselling and beloved The Travelling Cat Chronicles, seven cats weave their way through their owners’ lives, climbing, comforting, nestling, and sometimes just tripping everyone up in this uplifting collection of tales by international bestselling author Hiro Arikawa. Against the backdrop of changing seasons in Japan, we meet Spin, a kitten rescued from the recycling bin, whose playful nature and simple needs teach an anxious father how to parent his own human baby; a colony of wild cats on a popular holiday island show a young boy not to stand in nature’s way; a family is perplexed by their cat’s undying devotion to their charismatic but uncaring father; a woman curses how her cat will not stop visiting her at night; and an elderly cat hatches a plan to pass into the next world as a spirit so that he and his owner may be in each other’s lives forever. Bursting with love and warmth, The Goodbye Cat exquisitely explores the cycle of life, from birth to death—as each of the seven stories explores how, in different ways, the steadiness and devotion of a well-loved cat never lets us down. A huge bestseller in Japan, this magical book is a joyous celebration of the wondrousness of cats and why we choose to share our lives with them.
In the much-anticipated follow-up to the bestselling and beloved The Travelling Cat Chronicles, seven cats weave their way through their owners’ lives, climbing, comforting, nestling, and sometimes just tripping everyone up in this uplifting collection of tales by international bestselling author Hiro Arikawa. Against the backdrop of changing seasons in Japan, we meet Spin, a kitten rescued from the recycling bin, whose playful nature and simple needs teach an anxious father how to parent his own human baby; a colony of wild cats on a popular holiday island show a young boy not to stand in nature’s way; a family is perplexed by their cat’s undying devotion to their charismatic but uncaring father; a woman curses how her cat will not stop visiting her at night; and an elderly cat hatches a plan to pass into the next world as a spirit so that he and his owner may be in each other’s lives forever. Bursting with love and warmth, The Goodbye Cat exquisitely explores the cycle of life, from birth to death—as each of the seven stories explores how, in different ways, the steadiness and devotion of a well-loved cat never lets us down. A huge bestseller in Japan, this magical book is a joyous celebration of the wondrousness of cats and why we choose to share our lives with them.
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Find The Goodbye Cat Hiro Arikawa in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find The Goodbye Cat Hiro Arikawa in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
2 books in catalog
Contemporary Japanese fiction exploring the emotional bonds between humans and animals gained widespread international readership through stories of quiet domestic life and companionship, particularly through the novel The Travelling Cat Chronicles. Hiro Arikawa wrote the narrative to depict a journey across Japan shared between a feline protagonist and his dedicated owner, examining devotion, memory, and quiet life transitions.
Born on June 9, 1972, in Kochi City, Kochi Prefecture, Japan, Arikawa established herself in Japanese literature after winning the tenth annual Dengeki Novel Prize for new writers in 2003 for Shio no Machi: Wish on My Precious, which was published in 2004. Early in her writing career, she cited kaiju media such as Gamera as a key creative influence. She later settled in Takarazuka, a city located along the vintage maroon carriages of the Hankyu railway line connecting Osaka and Kyoto. Over the course of her career, her books have achieved multi-million-copy sales in Japan and worldwide publication.
Arikawa's storytelling frequently explores interpersonal dynamics, romantic ties, and social barriers. Her early speculative works were noted for portraying deep romantic relationships between characters divided by social status and age, alongside detailed depictions of military structures. In her popular animal-centered narratives, including The Travelling Cat Chronicles and The Goodbye Cat, she shifts focus to the gentle observation of human lives through feline perspectives, highlighting themes of mutual affection, domestic warmth, and the bittersweet nature of human and animal companionship.
2 books in catalog
Contemporary Japanese fiction exploring the emotional bonds between humans and animals gained widespread international readership through stories of quiet domestic life and companionship, particularly through the novel The Travelling Cat Chronicles. Hiro Arikawa wrote the narrative to depict a journey across Japan shared between a feline protagonist and his dedicated owner, examining devotion, memory, and quiet life transitions.
Born on June 9, 1972, in Kochi City, Kochi Prefecture, Japan, Arikawa established herself in Japanese literature after winning the tenth annual Dengeki Novel Prize for new writers in 2003 for Shio no Machi: Wish on My Precious, which was published in 2004. Early in her writing career, she cited kaiju media such as Gamera as a key creative influence. She later settled in Takarazuka, a city located along the vintage maroon carriages of the Hankyu railway line connecting Osaka and Kyoto. Over the course of her career, her books have achieved multi-million-copy sales in Japan and worldwide publication.
Arikawa's storytelling frequently explores interpersonal dynamics, romantic ties, and social barriers. Her early speculative works were noted for portraying deep romantic relationships between characters divided by social status and age, alongside detailed depictions of military structures. In her popular animal-centered narratives, including The Travelling Cat Chronicles and The Goodbye Cat, she shifts focus to the gentle observation of human lives through feline perspectives, highlighting themes of mutual affection, domestic warmth, and the bittersweet nature of human and animal companionship.
