The Blanket Cats

Japanese author Shigematsu (Knife) offers a touching collection of linked stories about a Tokyo pet store that rents out cats for three-day terms. There are rules to follow: cats are not to be fed food other than the special kind the store supplies, and renters must never wash the cat’s blanket—though the penalties for not following these rules remain unclear. In “The Cat Who Sneezed,” Norio, 40, who’s unable to have children with his partner, Yukie, comes to realize that having a pet is hard, thankless work, after the cat they rented shows no interest in the tower they bought for it. “The Cat Who Knew How to Pretend” follows a woman named Hiromi who rents a cat to stand in for her family’s recently deceased pet tabby, a ruse for the benefit of her senile grandmother. Ryuhei, the recently unemployed protagonist of “The Cat Dreams Were Made Of,” hopes the cat he rents will keep his children happy as they prepare to move into a smaller home, but the gambit fails miserably. Shigematsu adds depth and intrigue by avoiding sentimentality, so that when a story does contain a happy ending or a moment of comfort for the characters, it feels genuine. Fans of “healing fiction” like Hiro Arikawa’s The Travelling Cat Chronicles will find much to enjoy. (Feb.)