Book Review: We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida
For fans of THE TRAVELLING CAT CHRONICLES, THE CAT WHO SAVED BOOKS and SHE AND HER CAT, discover the award-winning bestselling Japanese novel that has become an international sensation in this utterly charming celebration of the healing power of cats.
A cat a day keeps the doctor away …
On the top floor of an old building at the end of a cobbled alley in Kyoto lies the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul. Only a select few – those who feel genuine emotional pain – can find it.
The mysterious centre offers a unique treatment for its troubled patients: it prescribes cats as medication.
Get ready to fall in love:
– Bee, an eight-year-old female, mixed breed helps a disheartened businessman as he finds unexpected joy in physical labour;
– Margot, muscly like a lightweight boxer, helps a middle-aged callcentre worker stay relevant at work and at home;
– Koyuki, an exquisite white cat brings closure to a young mother troubled by the memory of the rescue kitten she was forced to abandon;
– Tank and Tangerine bring peace to a hardened handbag designer, as she learns to be kinder to herself;
– Mimita, the Scottish Fold kitten helps a broken-hearted Geisha to stop blaming herself for the cat she lost years ago;
As the clinic’s patients navigate their inner turmoil and seek resolution, their feline companions lead them towards healing, self-discovery and newfound hope.
Published by Penguin Books Australia
Released September 2024
My Thoughts:We’ll Prescribe You A Cat by Syou Ishida is a Japanese best-seller that is now available in an English translation. It’s a set of interconnected short to medium length stories that revolve around a mysterious and hard to find clinic in Kyoto called the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul. Only those who need the clinic can find it, enter it, and receive ‘treatment’ within.
This is no ordinary clinic though. The doctor barely listens to his ‘patients’, yet still seems to see beyond what’s bothering them to zero in on the real issue. With each patient, he prescribes a cat, for a set amount of time, with a set of specific instructions, that are given to each patient by the somewhat rude receptionist.
As the stories progress and we get closer to the end of the book, disturbing truths come out about the apartment the clinic is located within, and it becomes more and more apparent that the clinic doesn’t exactly exist, despite certain people accessing it and coming and going with cats, and that the doctor and his receptionist are not entirely human.
In the end, the semantics of the clinic matter less than the results those going there see within their lives. This quirky, charming book is above all uplifting as those who take their ‘prescriptions’ discover much about themselves and how to fix their lives through the care, love, and amusement of owning a cat.
I enjoyed the insights into Japanese culture and the sheer adoration for cats that shone through each and every story. Another gorgeous and entirely clever #japaneseliterature read.
Thanks to the lovely peeps at @penguinbooksaus for the #bookreviewer copy.
