The Cat and The City

As a former Tokyo resident I was keen to read this one. It's a series of linked short stories that circle round each other, cross over, and meet in unexpected ways, much like an unplanned wander around the backstreets and alleyways of that marvellous city. Background characters in one become the lead in the next, and walk past someone who comes to the fore a few dozen pages later and so on. This will be familiar to fans of David Mitchell's Ghostwritten, and I suspect they will also find a lot to like in the loving depiction of Japanese life here. At times, the book does veer maybe too close to a game of Tokyo Bingo, as the expected landmarks and customs are ticked off, but I never had the impression it was done in a cynical way. In the end, the book is about emotional connections as much as it is narrative ones, and it's a rewarding experience.