The Nine Lives of a Bookshop Cat

In his third life, Kinnosuke belonged to a famous author.

Now, in his ninth, he goes to live in the Big Dipper Bookshop, owned by a woman called Erika Kitahoshi, which is already home to brood of fellow cats - Lulu, Kinu, Kaa, and Chibi - who all once belonged to writers too.

Soon Kinnosuke begins to notice some of the bookshop's more curious quirks: there are few customers, but it never goes out of business. No stock is ordered, but it never seems to run out of books. But if he wants to know more of its secrets he will have to exchange some of his own - about the life he shared with the author.

Meanwhile, once so disinterested in the lives of humans, Kinnosuke becomes close to a young customer with ambitions of becoming a writer herself. When misfortune befalls her and imperils her dream, Kinnosuke must confront the secret history behind the bookshop and fight to keep her hopes alive.

Translated from the Japanese by Sylvia Gallagher