Cats first arrived in Japan in the 6th century, imported from China by Buddhist monks to protect sacred scrolls from rodents. Soon the industrious creatures came to symbolize luck and prosperity and were often credited with supernatural abilities. Fast forward to the 21st century, and as you’ll hear in these audiobooks, the supernatural remains an ever-present possibility in Japan, and cats and the written word are still loved and honored. They have a rare magic that can radically transform lives, bringing comfort, romance, and self-understanding to anyone willing to listen.
Kevin Shen’s sympathetic narration highlights the mix of wisdom and eccentricity in THE CAT WHO SAVED BOOKS by Sosuke Natsukawa and translated by Louise Heal Kawai. After the death of his grandfather, a withdrawn Japanese schoolboy takes over his bookshop. Enter a talking tabby who enlists the boy in a series of book-rescue quests. It’s an adventuresome, witty story that appeals to adults of all ages, and Shen's skill with characterization, including the clubby Englishman of a cat, adds insight and humor.
Mai Mochizuki’s THE FULL MOON COFFEE SHOP, translated by Jesse Kirkwood and ably performed by Sadao Ueda, Tomoko Komura, and Yuriri Naka, amps up the fantastical with a cast of cats who run the Full Moon Coffee Shop, a magical place that appears where and when it's required. Inside, felines offer people common-sense wisdom, romantic counsel, and astrological explanations for life's conundrums. Lonely office workers, out of work actresses, and isolated creative types are all helped, along with the listener, by the cats’ mix of coffee and advice.
The felines in Syou Ishida’s touching WE’LL PRESCRIBE YOU A CAT appear realistic, yet they still bring about mysterious changes in people’s lives. Translated by E. Madison Shimoda and delightfully read by Naruto Komatsu and Natsumi Kuroda, the five whimsical stories introduce us to people who are unexpectedly prescribed a cat by a quirky doctor in a clinic that occasionally vanishes. Among others, we meet a disheartened accountant who finds new purpose when his cat lands him a laboring job, and a fretful schoolgirl and her censorious mother whose furry companion shows them harmony. These, and the rest of the stories, are worth savoring.
Such is the importance of cats in Japanese culture that, while they don’t star in these next couple of audiobooks, they are pictured on all the covers. And magic? Oh, that does star.
Hanako Footman’s enticing performance of THE KAMOGAWA FOOD DETECTIVES by Hisashi Kashiwai and translated by Jesse Kirkwood highlights its emotional resonance. The enchantment of food and memory combine with mystery in a small restaurant in an out-of-the-way corner of Kyoto. There, a father and daughter help their customers experience meals from their pasts—some treasured, some traumatic—that reconnect them to their memories. Footman’s reading of the dishes will make you hungry, and perhaps nostalgic for the tastes in your own past.
Let me end as I began, with a fine performance from Kevin Shen, who earned an Earphones Award for his moving narration of TALES FROM THE CAFÉ by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. It's the second in a series, translated by Geoffrey Trousselot, that takes us to Cafe Funiculi Funicula in Tokyo, where visitors travel briefly back in time in order to move forward in their lives. Shen offers sensitive portrayals of people who want to improve bits of their past. Listening to his portrait of a son who had missed his mother’s funeral or a man wanting to see his long-ago best friend brings us close to our own regrets and hopes.
We all have past moments we wish we could do over, and Kawaguchi’s bestselling books speak to that need. The fifth in the series, BEFORE WE FORGET KINDNESS, was published on audio on November 5. Again narrated by Kevin Shen, it includes the stories of a woman who couldn't give Valentine's Day chocolates to her loved one and a boy who wants to show his smile to his divorced parents. I can say that as my pre-Thanksgiving treat, I’m already looking forward to hearing Shen’s performance.
