The Travelling Cat Chronicles

Item: The Travelling Cat Chronicles
Author: WhichBook

Hiro Arikawa

Superficially this seems to be a simply told story about the wanderings of a cat and his master. But the delicacy, the love and affection that seeps through makes it something more. Not forgetting the cheeky voice of Nana the cat to counterbalance the sadness. With the future in mind Satoru delves into the past, and meets up with old friends. It’s a long time since I read such a moving story.

Extract

The rainbow’s two ends were firmly anchored in the ground. The top was a little fainter, but the rainbow was entirely whole. It made a perfect arch.
I’d seen these colours somewhere before. I thought about it, and then it dawned on me.
The flowers at the graveyard that morning. The wild purple chrysanthemums, the colour of each slightly different, the bright-yellow goldenrod, and the cosmos.
Cover that bouquet of flowers with some light-coloured gauze and it would be a rainbow.
'We offered a rainbow, didn’t we, at the grave?'
It made me happy when I heard Satoru say this. The two of us were on exactly the same wavelength.

Parallels