Book of the Month: WE'LL PRESCRIBE YOU A CAT by Syou Ishida, translated by E. Madison Shimoda

It's the month of June, a special time for several reasons: it's Pride Month, it's the beginning of summer, it's a sign that we've made it halfway through the wretched year, and most importantly, it's my birthday month. So as the world falls apart around us all, I decided that for once I would read a straightforward feel-good book. A book about my all-time favorite subject, the one thing that never fails to bring a smile to my face—cats.

I have been obsessed with cats all my life. My family's always had them. I grew up around them. My literal first word was "cat." And in some of my lowest, absolute worst moments, my pet cats have been at my side to help me pull through my troubles. I don't know where I'd be today without cats; that's why I couldn't be happier to shine a spotlight on this month's book, a collection of stories all about the healing power of human/feline friendship.

We'll Prescribe You A Cat is a novel by Japanese author Syou Ishida, originally published in Japan in 2023. I will be discussing the English version, translated by E. Madison Shimoda and published in September 2024. A whimsical work of magical realism, the book presents five short stories of life in modern Japan, all connected by the same underlying thread. That thread is the Nakagyō Kokoro Clinic for the Soul, an unassuming mental health clinic hidden in the heart of Kyoto (where the author herself hails from). No one who comes to the clinic actually makes an appointment ahead of time: unhappy people in need of a change in their lives seem to find their way to its door. Once inside, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary clinic. Rather than normal medicine, the eccentric Dr. Nikké literally prescribes cats to his patients. Each story starts with the protagonist receiving a cat that they must take home and look after for a set amount of time. And as you'd expect, each cat upends its new owner's life in comical fashion, causing disarray before ultimately helping the protagonist find the peace and harmony they need. Sometimes the cat ends up staying with its new person, and sometimes it goes back to the clinic when its job is done, but its positive impact on the lives it touches is undeniable either way. And through subtle hints and details that gradually come together across all five stories, the mystery surrounding Nakagyō Kokoro Clinic for the Soul is revealed.

Although the stories follow a distinct formula (particularly in the opening sections where the protagonist arrives at the clinic), no two narratives are exactly the same. There's the story of Shuta Kagawa, a young office worker who is in denial about wanting to leave his abusive workplace. But there's also Megumi Minamida, a strict mother who struggles to connect with her daughter's elementary school troubles, and Tomoka Takamine, a handbag designer whose dissatisfaction in her personal life is spilling over into her professional relationships. For me, the most emotionally affecting protagonist was Abino, a geisha whose mental health begins to deteriorate after her beloved pet cat goes missing. In each story, Ishida has something to say about the tribulations of modern life and how we communicate with each other (or don't). She touches on the themes of generational gaps, modern office politics, the trauma of loss, the insight you gain from looking back at your childhood with an adult perspective, and much more.

And of course, I have to talk about the cats themselves. Even as a cat lover myself, I find that conveying what is so special about cats via the written word can be a daunting task. From their energy and personality to their unique appearances, the charms of cats are so often experienced visually, as an entire Internet's worth of cat videos can demonstrate. But through Ishida's words (and Shimoda's English translation), the cats of Kokoro Clinic seem to leap right off the page and into your lap for snuggles. You get to meet the quiet and nervous Bee, who wins over Shuta's heart even as her habit of scratching random objects keeps getting him into trouble. Tomoka accidentally ends up with two cats, Tank and Tangerine, and she's kept on her toes by the former's spirited antics while gaining creative inspiration from the latter's hypnotic sweetness. My favorite of the cats was Margot, a loud and opinionated tortoiseshell whose unusual facial expressions win her fame on social media and help her "patient" connect with his coworkers. Abino gets paired with a Scottish Fold kitten named Mimita, and his kind yet lonely nature helps her realize that making space in your heart for a new furry friend doesn't mean forgetting or abandoning your old ones.

The book is already good when it focuses on these human/cat relationships, but Ishida adds an extra dose of whimsy and cleverness to the proceedings with the mystery subplot surrounding the true nature of the Kokoro Clinic. It's evident as early as the first story that the business is in fact some kind of liminal space, but how did it get that way? And who exactly runs it? Those are the questions that run throughout the whole book, with Ishida carefully dropping hint after hint for the reader. An innocuous-sounding detail from one story will pop up later on with new significance, and things get stranger and stranger until the clues add up to make a (mostly) complete picture. At the moment when the last big piece of the puzzle fell into place, I had a massive grin on my face as I took in the wonder of it all. Believe it or not, this is one of those books where the final twist will make you want to re-read the whole thing immediately so can pick up on all the foreshadowing you missed.

If you're like me, a person who often reacts badly to media involving cats being harmed, I will warn you that the narrative takes a bit of a dark swerve in both the third and fifth stories of the book. There is no explicit harming or killing of cats at any point, but the third story involves kittens being abandoned as a plot point, and the fifth story references a hoarding/illegal breeding situation in which many cats were left to die. The suffering of the cats is not dwelt upon outside of a few paragraphs, but some readers may find it disturbing nonetheless. I bring this up not to dissuade you from reading the book if you're a cat lover, but to ensure that coming across these passages without warning will not negatively affect your experience of reading the book. I'm so sensitive to cat death in fiction that a book or movie has to really speak to me in order for me to look past that element, and We'll Prescribe You a Cat is one of the few stories which has succeeded at that challenge.

I think anyone who has ever loved a cat will be able to relate to some aspect of these stories. It taps into the unique magic of the human-feline bond: the fact that these inscrutable, aloof creatures choose to be part of our lives and give us their affection. Their loyalty is something you work for, a reward worth earning. And even though our time with them may be all too short, that time leaves us changed forever. We'll Prescribe You a Cat is an absolute gem of a book, and I adored it. And lucky for me, it's a series! The English translation of the second installment—aptly called We'll Prescribe You Another Cat—is set to be published this fall. And I, for one, cannot wait to see what further surprises the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul has to offer.

Come back in July to see my next Book of the Month pick! Thanks for reading!

—Dana