Messenger Cat Café The charming, quirky Japanese bestseller about a cat in the afterlife seeking connection

"A much-needed dose of comfort and positivity." —Shanna Tan, translator of Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop

Tabby cat Fuuta has passed into the afterlife and will do anything to see his human again . . . if only he can not disrupt the balance of the universe.

After a long 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. Slight openings bridge the divide between the lands of the living and the dead, and they can be traversed.

Eager to see Michiru again, Fuuta interviews for a position at Café Pont, a café that exists in the liminal space between the two worlds, known for its unique message delivery service: Customers leave requests with the name of the person they wish to meet, and a messenger cat is assigned to arrange the "meeting."

If Fuuta doesn’t maintain plausible deniability, he could cause panic amongst the living, or worse: He could upset the balance of the universe itself. It is a weighty task for an old tabby cat, but Fuuta is up for the challenge. After all, the job offers a special reward: the right to see Michiru. And he’ll do anything to reunite with his family.

Nagi Shimeno is a writer and cafe owner, based in Tokyo. She was a 1st Delicious Literature Award finalist and is the author of the Café Dodo and Messenger Cat series.

M. Jean is a graduate of University of California, Irvine with a bachelor’s degree in Japanese Language and Literature. She studied translation at International Christian University in Mitaka, Japan, where she was inspired to specialize in literature. Messenger Cat Café is the first novel to make her cry on the job (but it will not be the last).