Cat and the City

A BBC Radio 2 Book Club PickOne of the Independent's best June debuts

'A love letter to Japan and its literature.' Rowan Hisayo Buchanan 

'If you're itching to read a new novel by David Mitchell, then good news; he has one out in July. If you can't wait even that long, try this.' The Times

In Tokyo - one of the world's largest megacities - a stray cat is wending her way through the back alleys. And, with each detour, she brushes up against the seemingly disparate lives of the city-dwellers, connecting them in unexpected ways.

But the city is changing. As it does, it pushes her to the margins where she chances upon a series of apparent strangers - from a homeless man squatting in an abandoned hotel, to a shut-in hermit afraid to leave his house, to a convenience store worker searching for love. The cat orbits Tokyo's denizens, drawing them ever closer.

'Masterfully weaves together seemingly disparate threads to conjure up a vivid tapestry of Tokyo; its glory, its shame, its characters, and a calico cat.' David Peace, author of The Tokyo Trilogy