Description: "Our narrator's days are numbered. Estranged from his family, living alone with only his cat Cabbage for company, he was unprepared for the doctor's diagnosis that he has only months to live. But before he can set about tackling his bucket list, the Devil appears with a special offer: in exchange for making one thing in the world disappear, he can have one extra day of life. And so begins a very bizarre week ... Because how do you decide what makes life worth living? How do you separate out what you can do without from what you hold dear? In dealing with the Devil our narrator will take himself - and his beloved cat - to the brink."--
Brief description: Genki Kawamura was born in Yokohama, Japan in 1979. He produced films such as Confessions, Villain, Wolf Children, Your Name, and Koreeda's Monster. He is the youngest recipient in the history of the Fujimoto Award. In 2012, he published his first novel, If Cats Disappeared from the World. The book has since been translated into 35 languages and sold over 3 million copies worldwide. Other works include Million Dollar Man, April Come She Will, One Hundred Flowers, Divine Song, Chatty Rooms, and The Horse and I, all of which have been translated and published internationally. In 2022, he wrote and directed A Hundred Flowers, based on his novel, becoming the first Japanese filmmaker to receive the Silver Shell for Best Director Award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. In 2025, his second feature film Exit 8 was selected as an Official Selection at the 78th Cannes Film Festival and released internationally, exceeding 5 million admissions worldwide.
Review Quotes:
"At first, If Cats Disappeared from the World feels as light and puzzling as a fairy tale, but then, steadily, chapter by chapter--using nothing more than conversation, memory, and a winning narrator's searching, sensitive thought experiments--it raises its cosmic stakes higher than any thriller. Like a padding cat or the shadow of death, Genki Kawamura's book snuck up on me; the next thing I knew, I was crying." --Robin Sloan, New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and Sourdough
"If you're a fan of The Guest Cat (or even just cats generally), you'll love this." --The Sunday Times (UK) "A funny and heartwarming meditation on the meaning of life." --Book Riot "A warm, quirky novel on life, love, family estrangement and what remains when we are gone with a surprising emotional charge." --The Observer (UK) "A poignant, affecting story about facing up to one's mortality, taking responsibility for one's choices and deciding what truly holds value." --The Herald (UK) "The story will have readers re-evaluating the possessions they have and what they might gain from losing them...and are sure to come away from the story seeing the world and the people around them a little differently." --International Examiner