Published By: Harvill
Pages: 288
Released On: 19/02/2026
Translated By: M. Jean
After a long and happy life with a loving human family, tabby cat Fuuta has passed into the afterlife. But he is not as far from his owner Michiru as it seems. Sometimes the divide between the lands of the living and the dead can be traversed.
Eager to see Michiru again, Fuuta interviews for a position at Café Pont, which sits in the liminal space between the two worlds. The café is known for its unique service: its living customers can request meetings with the person they’d most like to see again, through the specially selected spirits of messenger cats.
Fuuta must investigate and deliver his messages without unnerving the living, or worse, upsetting the balance of the universe itself. It is a weighty task for a tabby cat, but Fuuta rises to the challenge. After all, the job offers a special reward: he will get to see Michiru again. And he’ll do anything to reunite with his family.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Harvill for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I love Japanese fiction, and there is definitely a recurring theme with fantasy and cats which I enjoy.
It’s an unusual, but sensitive and uplifting and positive look at grief and moving on after loss.
The formatting was a bit off on my e-arc so I cannot comment on how the formatting worked with the story in terms of how the published copy will look.
I loved this idea that the gap between the living world and the afterlife is not as big as we think, and that there is this crossover between the living and the dead. As someone who has lost a lot of people in a short amount time, I found that very comforting. Especially reading it in England, because we generally avoid talking about death, and so it’s great to read it written about so openly.
This is narrated by the main cat Fuuta, which took some getting used to as, unsurprisingly, I can’t relate to a cat, and I do always try to find some common ground in the characters.
It is a relatively short book which means it was nice and quick. The pacing helps with it as well, because some of it is slower and some bits quicker, which helps balance it out.
This is going to be quite a generic statement but bear with me. Like the majority of Asian fiction I read, it is quite repetitive. That’s not inherently a negative point. But they tend to fixate on one plot point (in this case, the cat helping a loved on and a deceased individual move on), and stick with it, telling the story over and over again with different characters. Which again is not necessarily bad, and I think the short length helps with this because I think if it went on too longer it would feel a bit too much repetition.
The writing is quite simple – but that could well be the translation – and doesn’t really challenge you, but it does lend itself to a cosy, relaxing, familiar, reassuring read.
It’s not the best translated book I’ve ever read, but I did still enjoy it. It’s cosy and heartwarming and tender, relaxing and fast paced, sensitive, and almost healing for those who are grieving.
Books By Your Bedside 