Goodbye Cat

HIRO ARIKAWA is the multi-million-copy bestselling author of THE TRAVELLING CAT CHRONICLES and THE GOODBYE CAT. Passing through a scenic mountainous region of Japan, the famous Hankyu line is a privately run railway that connects Osaka and Kyoto and is famous for its maroon-coloured vintage-style carriages. One of its much-visited stops is the city of Takarazuka, where the author of this book lives. Published twenty years ago, this enduring Japanese classic has sold 1.4 million copies and has been published worldwide.

Philip Gabriel is the author of Mad Wives and Island Dreams: Shimao Toshio and the Margins of Japanese Literature and Spirit Matters: The Transcendent in Modern Japanese Literature and has translated many novels and short stories by the writer Haruki Murakami and other modern writers. He is recipient of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature (2001) for his translation of Senji Kuroi’s Life in the Cul-de-Sac, and the 2006 PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize for his translation of Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore.