The novel brims with new small joys and many moments of staggering poetic beauty, but then something happens.Īs Kenzaburo Oe has remarked, Takashi Hiraide's work 'really shines.' His poetry, which is remarkably cross-hatched with beauty, has been acclaimed here for 'its seemingly endless string of shape-shifting objects and experiences, whose splintering effect is enacted via a unique combination of speed and minutiae.

Life suddenly seems to have more promise for the husband and wife the days have more light and color. Read 3447 reviews from the worlds largest community for readers. Soon they are buying treats for the cat and enjoying talks about the animal and all its little ways. It leaves, but the next day comes again, and then again and again. The dark, creepy tone really hit the spot for me in the midst of my reading last fall. It’s complicated and genre bending, with nods to fairy tales Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood specificallyand written in a striking style that’s all her own. They speak to a void, sometimes quietly, other times loudly from the proverbial. But one day a cat invites itself into their small kitchen. The narrative follows an ex-detective as she searches for a missing couple. The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide Paperback, 144 pages purchase The best novels are often the ones that change us. He has also written a novel, A Guest Cat a biography of Meiji poet Irako Seihaku and a travelogue that follows the traces of Kafka, Celan, and Benjamin in Berlin. He has published numerous books of poetry as well as several books of genre-bending essays, including one on poetics and baseball. A couple in their thirties live in a small rented cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo they work at home, freelance copy-editing they no longer have very much to say to one another. Takashi Hiraide was born in Moji, Kitakyushu in 1950. A bestseller in France and winner of Japan's Kiyama Shohei Literary Award, The Guest Cat, by the acclaimed poet Takashi Hiraide, is a subtly moving and exceptionally beautiful novel about the transient nature of life and idiosyncratic but deeply felt ways of living.