Book Ninety Four 2014:

The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide

No, I don’t have an obsession with Japanese authors either. It’s just I’ve read a quite a few this year by coincidence…

This one has been staring out at me from the bestseller shelves in a bookshop in town for a while and I am absolutely sure that whether you enjoy it or not depends on your attitude to cats.

A small one wanders into the life of a thirty-something Japanese couple renting a small house from a neighbour’s yard and proceeds to change their relationship and the world around them.

As I’ve said before, particularly about Murakami, your like or love for a story like this will hugely depend on your love for slow-moving, gentle, observational stories full of small detail and gentle moments of normal lives. I got all upset. Shut up, you.