Walk into any major English-language bookstore and chances are you will find them staring at you with handsomely illustrated eyes. The beautifully drawn cat will usually sit against a sparse pale background, perhaps with a book as a prop. The title will prominently display the vital word "cat" followed by the name of the author, who is usually Japanese.
First gaining traction with foreign audiences in the mid-2010s, Japanese cat novels are now ubiquitous enough to form a minigenre. "It used to be [that] publishers were all interested in [Haruki] Murakami," says Louise Heal Kawai, a veteran translator of Japanese literature, referring to one of Japan's best-known contemporary novelists. "Now they all want cats."
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