If you have been anywhere near a bookstore in the last year, the boom in translated Asian literature must have been at least a little bit apparent. The genre I am particularly drawn to it the cat and book literature or as The Japan Times calls it: ‘healing fiction’.1
From She and her cat2 to What you are looking for is in the library3, the books just fascinate me. Usually I am more drawn to fantasy series in with lots of storylines and plottwist, so my taking a liking to this genre has generally surprised me. This surprise was and still is, a very pleasant one, because I like to expand my reading horizons. Reading, at least for me, is a way to get to know a whole different world and this genre, in some shape or form, does exactly that!
What’s more, this genre of healing fiction, makes me think about my life choices. It also manages to gently let me look back at my own life with such kindness that I forget to back down in shame at my past mistakes. And even though I do not think all of them are literary masterpieces, it is comforting to know that a genre about seemingly ordinary people and their seemingly ordinary lives can make me so excited about living my own life! Sometimes a passage just makes my buzz with excitement just of the mundane things in life like washing dishes or folding laundry.
And this is the sort of excitement about life that I cannot get enough of, because we should more often be excited for the ordinary. Because just as the exciting things are prove of our existence, so are the mundane things and even more so the tragedies of our lives.
So, what I really want to say is that I’m glad I discovered a new genre. A genre that manages to make me feel alive just be living my normal, day-to-day life. A genre that puts life in general in a whole new perspective
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2024/11/02/books/cozy-cats-healing-fiction/
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442639/she-and-her-cat-by-nagakawa-makoto-shinkai-and-naruki/9781804993118
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/452650/what-you-are-looking-for-is-in-the-library-by-aoyama-michiko/9781804994139