We’ll Prescribe You A Cat – Syou Ishida

A cat a day keeps the doctor away – and if you’re not lucky enough to have a feline friend of your own, the experts at the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul in Kyoto will prescribe one to you. That’s basically the premise of We’ll Prescribe You A Cat, the award-winning best-selling Japanese novel translated into English by E. Madison Shimoda (and kindly sent to me for review by Penguin Books Australia).

So, obviously We’ll Prescribe You A Cat has a lot of the hallmarks of Japanese literature, but I loved that Ishida was a light touch with the magical realism. The Kokoro Clinic for the Soul can only be found by people who really need it, and the rest of the story is pretty grounded. You can totally believe that there would be an eccentric ‘doctor’ prescribing people cats for ailments like insomnia, job dissatisfaction, and low self-esteem.

We’ll Prescribe You A Cat is split into sections, named for the cats prescribed: Bee, Margot, Koyuki, Tank and Tangerine, and Mimita. Each cat gives the recipient what they need, but not in the way that they expect. If all that weren’t enough to draw the cat-lovers in, there are adorable illustrations of cats throughout.

I quite enjoyed We’ll Prescribe You A Cat. I found it a cut above some of the other Japanese best-sellers that have found their way onto Anglophone shelves lately, more nuanced and layered. It’s sweet without being cloying, and insightful without being heavy-handed.

Read We’ll Prescribe You A Cat on audiobook via Libro.fm here. (affiliate link)