The Cat Who Saved the Library

Nanami sees nothing wrong with a library and cat combination. But a talking cat is a whole other story.

Thirteen-year-old Nanami Kosaki loves reading. The local library is a home from home and books have become her best friends. When Nanami notices books disappearing from the library shelves, she’s particularly curious about a suspicious man in a grey suit whose furtive behaviour doesn’t feel right. Should she follow him to see what he’s up to?

When a talking tabby cat called Tiger appears to warn her about how dangerous that would be, together they’re brave enough to follow the frightening trail to find out where all the books have gone. Will Nanami and Tiger overcome the challenges of the adventure ahead?

Warm, wonderful and wise, Sosuke Natsukawa's The Cat Who Saved the Library is also a powerful lesson never to underestimate the value of great literature, and a reminder always to think for ourselves, no matter what our charismatic leaders might say.

Translated from Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai

About the Author

Sosuke Natsukawa is a Japanese physician and novelist. He graduated from the Shinshu University medical school and practises medicine at a hospital in the largely rural prefecture of Nagano. His multi-volume debut novel, Kamisama no Karute (God's Medical Records), has won several prizes and has sold over three million copies in Japan. He is the author of the internationally bestselling The Cat Who Saved Books. The Cat Who Saved the Library is the second book in his series featuring Tiger the talking tabby cat.

Louise Heal Kawai has been a Japanese-English literary translator since 2006. Her first publication was Shoko Tendo’s bestselling autobiography Yakuza Moon. She has gone on to translate a large number of crime fiction titles, including Seishi Yokomizo’s The Honjin Murders, and works by Soji Shimada and Seicho Matsumoto. Her literary translations include Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami, and Hideo Yokoyama’s Seventeen, which was a finalist in the 2018 Believer Book Awards, and longlisted for the 2019 Best Translated Book Award. She is also the translator of Sosuke Natsukawa's The Cat Who Saved Books. Louise comes from Manchester in the UK, and currently resides in Yokohama.