(There was a lot of repetitions of “ on their face” instead of “looked. This made short, punchy Japanese sentences feel a little slower or clunky in the English. (At least, from what I’ve experienced.) As a result there were times when it felt that every single word was included in a sentence. British writing tends to be a little more wordy and passive than American writing. I don’t know where Selland is from but I’m guessing he’s British from how this was translated.
Characterization (which I’ll also go over later.). Cultural references were…hit and miss (but I’ll go over that later.). There were times when quirky comments in the Japanese were missing. There were times when every word was translated in a sentence. Reading the translation (the US edition) alongside the Japanese (which is the first time I’ve ever done this) I noticed four thing: What would you give up if you could live for just one more day? It’s a story about what is meaningful in life, what value do we place on objects and people. However, the Devil makes a deal with him: for every one thing he makes disappear from the world, he may live one day longer. This is a novella about a man who finds out he only has a few days left to live. If Cats Disappeared from the World was written by Genki Kawamura and translated by Eric Selland. The theme of this book is (as the narrator says many times) “you must lose something to gain something.” And, as a result of gaining the English edition for this novel a certain spark was lost from the original Japanese. The rest seemed derivative and banal, with the narrator having lived his life without progressing beyond base-level self-awareness.What if all the cats disappeared from the world? What would be lost, what would be gained? However, the names of the protagonist’s pets were the most enjoyable part of the book for me. The book is an easy read, written with humour and a positive message about connecting with others and not wasting hours fiddling about on your phone. The unnamed protagonist is given the chance to make a kind of Mephistophelesian deal with the devil – amusingly dressed in dodgy Hawaiian shirts – who allows him to remove one thing from the world in return for an extra day of life. His closest companion is his cat Cabbage. He has few personal connections, and is estranged from his father following the death of his mother several years earlier. The book is written from the perspective of a young man who discovers that he is dying from a brain tumour. I spotted the book in a branch of Waterstones when I was visiting family, and was attracted by the title, and the cover design.ĭon’t judge a book by its cover! I didn’t much enjoy it, but it was mercifully short. This novel has sold over 1 million copies in Japan, and has been made into a film. 
“ What would you sacrifice for an extra day of life?” Translated from the Japanese by Eric Selland
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