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She and Her Cat Cover image.jpg

Original title:

彼女と彼女の猫

 

Original language

Japanese

 

Publication info:

Kanzen 

May 2013

221 pages

 

Genre:

Upmarket commercial fiction

Rights handled by New River

Foreign rights excl. Asia, WEL

Rights sold:

China (Shanghai Translation)

France (Leduc)

Germany (S. Fischer)

Hungary (21. Század Kiadó)

Italy (Einaudi)

Korea (VICHE)

North America (Atria)

The Netherlands (Meulenhoff)

Poland (JUP)

Portugal (Presença)

Romania (Alice Books)
Russia (AST)

Taiwan (Sharp Point)

UK & Comm ex Can (Transworld)

World Spanish (Duomo)

She and Her Cat

 by Makoto Shinkai and Naruki Nagakawa

A nameless narrator observes the world from which he is about to depart. Lying on the edge of the sidewalk, he is alone and cold. At first, his contemplation of the world around him suggests that he is human, but our narrator is soon revealed to be a cat, abandoned inside a cardboard box. With his mother gone, the cat’s only company is the rhythmic sound of the train, which he believes to be the heartbeat of the world. In its final moments of life, the cat has a fateful encounter: a young human woman, peering down at him with an umbrella in her hand.

 

So begins the first story of She and Her Cat, a book composed of four interrelated stories. Written in a tender stream of consciousness, each story is alternately narrated by a cat and its female owner. While the four women in the book explore the frailty of life and the limits of communication, their feline companions lead lives governed by instinct and nature. Told in a whimsical prose, the book explores the magic hidden in the most quotidian detail of our life, and reminds us that, in our most lonesome moments, we are still connected to the wonder of the world.

About the author

Makoto Shinkai is one of Japan's preeminent animation directors, known as the ' new Miyazaki'. Shinkai is best known for Your Name, which was the highest-grossing anime film of all time, overtaking Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited AwayShe and Her Cat is based on the original story and short film of the same name by Shinkai, which won

several awards. 

Naruki Nagakawa is a scriptwriter, animation writer, and game writer. His works include Scared Rider Xechs, and the animation and the novel of She and Her Cat. He is a cat lover. 

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