Excerpt from The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa, Philip Gabriel, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

No need to explain. I'm quick on the uptake.

'I never intended to let you go.'

Life, be it human or feline, doesn't always work out the way you think it will.

If I had to give up living with Satoru, I'd just go back to the way I was five years ago. Back when the bone was sticking out of my leg. If we'd said goodbye and I'd gone back to life on the streets, it would not have been a big deal. I could go back to being a stray tomorrow, no problem.

I didn't lose anything. Just gained the name Nana, and the five years I'd spent with Satoru.

So don't look so glum, chum.

Cats just quietly take whatever comes their way.

The only exception so far was the night I broke my leg and thought of Satoru.

'Well, shall we go?'

It seemed Satoru wanted me to go with him somewhere. He opened the door of my cage and I got in without making a fuss. For the five years I'd lived with him, I'd always been a sensible cat. For instance, even when he took me to my bête noire, the vet, I didn't stir up a racket.

Okay then – let's go. As Satoru's roommate, I had been a perfect cat, so I should be the perfect companion on this journey he seemed so intent on making.

My cage in hand, Satoru got into the silver van.













ONE


Kosuke, the husband without a wife

Long time no see.

So began the email.

It was from Satoru Miyawaki, a childhood friend of Kosuke's who had moved away when he was in elementary school. He had moved around quite a bit after that, but they never completely lost touch, and even now, when they were both past thirty, they were still friends.

Sorry this is out of the blue, but would you be able to take my cat for me?

It was his precious cat, which 'unavoidable circumstances' were preventing him from keeping any longer, and he was now looking for someone to take care of it.

What these unavoidable circumstances were, he didn't say.

He attached two photos. A cat with two spots on his forehead forming the character hachi – eight.

'Whoa!' Kosuke couldn't help saying. 'This cat looks exactly like Hachi.'

The cat in the photo looked just like the one Satoru and Kosuke had found that day so many years ago.

He scrolled to a second photo, a close-up of the cat's tail. A hooked tail like the number seven.

Aren't cats with hooked tails supposed to bring good fortune? thought Kosuke.

He tried to recall who had told him that. Then he sighed, realizing it had been his wife, who'd gone to live with her parents for a while. Kosuke had no clue when she'd be back.

He was beginning to get the faint sense that maybe she never would.

The ridiculous thought crossed his mind that perhaps if they'd had a cat like this, things might have been different.

With a cat hanging around the house, a cat with a hooked tail to gather in pieces of happiness, maybe they'd be able to live a simpler, more innocent life. Even without any children.

Might be good to have the cat, he was thinking. The cat in the photo was good-looking, a lot like Hachi, with the hooked tail and everything. And he hadn't seen Satoru for a long time.

A friend asked me to take his cat for him, so what do you think? Kosuke emailed his wife, and she answered: Do whatever you like. A tad cold, he thought, but since she hadn't replied to a single email since she'd left, it felt good to hear from her, at least.

He began to wonder if his wife, a true cat lover, might actually come home if he took in the cat. Perhaps if he told her he had adopted the cat but didn't know how to look after it and begged her to help, perhaps she would come back solely out of sympathy for the cat.

Excerpted from The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.