The story follows Kinnosuke, a grumpy black cat who, at the start of the novel, is already on his ninth life. He is still a kitten, yet after eight previous lives, he has become so cynical and distrustful of people that he doesn't want anything to do with them. When his mother and siblings left one day and never returned, he set out for the town by himself, ending up in a busy area where people ignored him as they went about their business. Wandering off to find a quieter place, he came upon the mysterious Hokuto-do (Big Dipper) Bookshop, run by a woman named Erika Kitahoshi.
Initially apprehensive about going to the shop, he stayed away from the shop and its occupants. Aside from Kitahoshi, the shop also houses four cats who urge him to stop being stubborn and come inside because it is his destiny. However, Kinnosuke also regarded them with disdain for being pets, which he considered the lowest a cat could go. Eventually, his need to survive won, and he ventured into the shop where everyone called him Kuro, or black, because he wouldn't tell them his true name.
Once inside, Kinnosuke realized how weird the bookshop actually was. Erika, whom the other cats call the witch, could actually talk to cats: not the one-way talk we usually do with our kitty, but she could actually understand what the cats were thinking and saying. Then there were the books that the shop never seemed to run out of, even when there were no deliveries. The oldest cat in the group, Lulu, explains everything later while doing the shop inventory on her hind legs and clutching a pen with her paw.
It is also here in the bookshop that Kinnosuke would open up to us readers about his past lives, which he spent in various crucial moments of Japan's history. Here he explains why he finds it difficult to attach emotionally to other people, including Erika, except for the writer whom he lived with in his third life. By the way, he learns that all the other cats in the shop once lived with authors, and the annex of the book shows that these were Japanese literary greats.
Later, he meets a young girl who aspires to be a writer, and when she falls into unfortunate circumstances, Kuro has to overcome his cynicism to help her. It's also here that he finds out about the real story of the bookshop and Erika and restores his faith in humanity.
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What surprised me about this book is its emotional depth. It's not a simple, feel good, whimsical story of a cat in a bookshop as its title suggests. Instead, it explores complex emotions of distrust and love, of resilience in adversity, compassion, life, and death. Kinnosuke is such a complicated main character that his narrative becomes reflective and almost meditative. Couple that with Utsugi's almost soothing and easy-to-follow writing style, and you find yourself completely drawn to the story.
A word of warning, though. The story tackles some aspects of animal life and suffering that pet lovers would find difficult and heartbreaking to read.
In the end, this is not just a story about books and cats, but also compassion and how important it is to give everyone, animal or human, a second chance. This may be why I, and the other members of our cat group, found it worth reading.
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