A Cat, a Man, and Two Women

“Considering all I’ve sacrificed, is it too much to ask for one little cat in return?”

Shinako has been ousted from her marriage by her husband Shozo and his younger lover Fukuko. She’s lost everything: her home, status, and respectability. Yet the only thing she longs for is Lily, the elegant tortoiseshell cat she shared with her husband. As Shinako pleads for Lily’s return, Shozo’s reluctance to part with the cat reveals his true affections, and the lengths he’ll go to hold onto the one he loves most.

A small masterpiece, A Cat, a Man, and Two Women is a novel about loneliness, love, and companionship of the most unexpected kind. In this story of Japanese society and manners, Tanizaki gives us a perfectly-formed oddball comedy, and a love triangle in which the only real rival is feline.

‘A tour de force – catnip.’ – New York Times

‘One of the finest pieces of literature concerning cats ever written.’ – Choice

‘Tanizaki is a very brilliant novelist.’ – Haruki Murakami

‘A really great writer . . . Tanizaki has got this warm, ticklishness to his strangeness.’ – David Mitchell

‘The outstanding Japanese novelist of the century.’ – Edmund White, New York Times Book Review

‘Even his lighter-hearted fictions . . . make us hold our breath, and the endings don’t let us quite exhale.’ – John Updike