About the Author

GENKI KAWAMURA is an internationally bestselling author. If Cats Disappeared from the World was his first novel and has sold over two million copies in Japan and has been translated into over fourteen different languages. His other novels are Million Dollar Man and April Come She Will. He has also written children's picture books including Tinny & The Balloon, MOOM, and Patissier Monster. Kawamura occasionally produces, directs, and writes movies, and is a showrunner. He was a producer of the blockbuster anime film Your Name.

ERIC SELLAND is a poet, translator, and the author. His translation of The Guest Cat, a novel by Takashi Hiraide, was on the New York Times bestseller list in February 2014.

Reviews

"At first, If Cats Disappeared from the World feels as light and puzzling as a fairy tale, but then, steadily, chapter by chapter--using nothing more than conversation, memory, and a winning narrator's searching, sensitive thought experiments--it raises its cosmic stakes higher than any thriller. Like a padding cat or the shadow of death, Genki Kawamura's book snuck up on me; the next thing I knew, I was crying." --Robin Sloan, New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and Sourdough "If you're a fan of The Guest Cat (or even just cats generally), you'll love this." --The Sunday Times (UK) "A funny and heartwarming meditation on the meaning of life." --Book Riot "A warm, quirky novel on life, love, family estrangement and what remains when we are gone with a surprising emotional charge." --The Observer (UK) "A poignant, affecting story about facing up to one's mortality, taking responsibility for one's choices and deciding what truly holds value." --The Herald (UK) "The story will have readers re-evaluating the possessions they have and what they might gain from losing them...and are sure to come away from the story seeing the world and the people around them a little differently." --International Examiner