Mornings With My Cat Mii

'Gentle, meditative... Cat lovers, prepare to weep' THE TIMES, Book of the Month It was the end of summer, 1977. I found a cat, a little ball of fluff. A teeny tiny baby kitten. A beloved Japanese modern classic about our special connection with cats, and how they can change our lives over the course of a lifetime. For the last twenty years, Japanese readers have been falling in love with Mayumi Inaba’s story of life with her cat Mii, after she rescued her as a newborn kitten from a riverbank in Tokyo. We follow their everyday joys through the seasons, as Mayumi develops her career as a writer and finds her feet in life, with her small feline always at her side. Mornings With My Cat Mii lovingly chronicles Mayumi and Mii’s unshakeable twenty-year bond, meditating on solitude, companionship, the writing life, and how we care for our cats as they grow older. Translated into English for the first time by world-renowned translator Ginny Tapley Takemori, this beloved Japanese modern classic is a celebration of how a cat can change our lives forever. Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori ** Readers ADORE Mornings with My Cat Mii ** ‘I cried. Books rarely make me cry ... but this one was absolutely beautiful regardless. It made me reflect on grief, and love, and how to love is to feel intensely (for better or for worse)’ ‘Gentle and enchanting and had me in floods by the end’ ‘Loved this! A poetic, beautiful ode to a cat that changed a woman's life ... it's sweet, sad, but ultimately a gorgeous little book … a lovely little gem’ ‘Sweet and heartbreaking’ ‘This book was just so pure and beautiful’ ‘As someone who has been deeply affected by the loss of cats in the past … this was raw, emotional and relatable’ ‘As a cat mum, this destroyed me’ ‘Told with grace, beauty and love’

About the Author :
Mayumi Inaba (Author) Mayumi Inaba (1950-2014) was a Japanese writer, editor and poet. She made her debut in 1973 with the short story 'The Pain of Blue Shadows', and she went on to write many novels and collections for which she won several awards, including the Kawabata Yasunari Prize. She was awarded the Tanizaki Prize for To the Peninsula. Inaba was well known for her love of cats. Ginny Tapley Takemori (Translator) Ginny Tapley Takemori is the award-winning translator of Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman and other contemporary Japanese literature. She lives in rural Japan with her husband and three cats.

Review :
[A] gentle meditative narrative… Inaba muses on her own life…and has to confront mortality… Cat lovers, prepare to weep Supernaturally insightful and aglow with incidental joys, Mornings Without Mii uncovers something eternal about companionship, about being alone, and about cats I have never read a book quite like this ... Profoundly real, specific, moving, and beautifully written This book is more than a tribute to a companion. It’s proof of a world normally concealed from humans, exposed here through the eyes of an artist Skillfully translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori… Inaba has a poet’s eye for the natural world… The memoir documents not only one woman’s personal journey, but also the ineffable bond between human and animal as Inaba becomes guardian to Mii, then caretaker and, finally, mourner. Heartwarming... a beautiful read for cat lovers everywhere Mornings With My Cat Mii is beautiful (irrespective of one’s feelings towards cats) because Inaba is writing about love, the sort of love one could equally have for a human companion, about her pleasure in Mii’s company and ultimately, about grief. I read it in one sitting, and will likely go back and read it again. I thoroughly recommend it. A great love story, one that gathers strength as the beloved begins to decline ... This memoir reveals the profound respect, and compassion, that a friendship with an animal can inspire in a human being Mornings Without Mii is a meditative memoir about love, grief, writing, and cats. What a lovely book to curl up with A striking evocation of the way we meld our lives and hearts with a beloved creature