Abstract

A cat who lives among humans—and loves them deeply—keeps asking: What does it truly mean to live?
One day, Keina, a junior high girl longing for love and living with her mother, meets a mysterious cat with a long, marbled beige-and-black tail.
He calls himself El and has strange powers: he can heal with a lick and speaks human language.
“I’ve lived for 400 years.”

He does not age, nor fall ill.
El, who seems to live in eternal time, begins speaking to Keina as she wrestles with her relationships.
He also meets others carrying pain:
a man in his thirties worn down by life,
a tofu shop owner haunted by missing his father's final moments,
and a gentle elderly woman facing a terminal illness.
Through changing seasons, this miraculous cat stays close to the lost and hurting—quietly lighting the path forward.

Marking the 10th anniversary of Haruki Shimizu’s debut, this is his most heartfelt work since On the Other Side of Goodbye.
How do we live—and how do we face death?
El’s journey offers quiet wisdom on both.
A touching fantasy from a master of humanistic storytelling.

Author’s Information

Born in Chiba Prefecture. In 2011, his work was shortlisted for the 15th Scenario Grand Prize at the Hakodate Harbor Illumination Film Festival. In 2015, he made his full-length novel debut with The Case Records of Fleur, the Flower Shop with a View of the Sea: Ruri Akiyama Doesn’t Fall in Love (TO Books). Since then, he has continued to write novels set in Chiba.
His 2021 novel On the Other Side of Goodbye (Micro Magazine) became a major hit and was adapted into a TV drama.
His more recent works include Mahoroshi Station: Life’s Crossroads (Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha), Blooming with the Wind (KADOKAWA), The Seventeen-Year-Old Biotope (Gentosha), which was adapted into both a TV drama and a stage play, and The Heaven Cinema (Chuokoron-Shinsha), among others.
He also writes children’s books. Special Holiday Has Begun! (Iwasaki Shoten) won the 72nd Sankei Children’s Book Award (Nippon Broadcasting System Prize).