As the winner of Japan’s Kiyama Shohel Literary Award, Takashi Hiraide’s expressive novella The Guest Cat is unabashedly mellow storytelling with an elegant gentleness that puts the reader immediately in a restful and reflective state. Imparting the value of communing with others and taking note of the small joys and minutia of intimate moments, you see that life can be condensed down to savoring a morsel of food or reverently watching a dragonfly alight on a tree branch.

Relating a simple story of a couple who move to a small guesthouse on a larger estate in the suburbs of Tokyo, the primary focus on their placid, introverted lives as freelance stay-at-home copy editors gently shifts to a visiting cat and the effect he has on their relationship.

As the cat makes itself welcome to the house through an unexpected appearance followed by routine daily visitations and eventually as an essential element to their lives, it becomes a catalyst for changing the psychological perspectives of the protagonist and his wife. What was once drab is now vivid; the dull intriguing; and the ennui inspiring. As their sense of appreciation grows, they begin to relate to each other in a refreshed way as well as to the world outside, including their landlord, neighbors, nature and the passage of time.