Abandoning a Cat Hardcover by Haruki Murakami

Product Details

• Publisher: Bond Street Books (2026-10-27)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 80 pages
• ISBN-13: 9780385703802
• Item Weight: 209.79 grams
• Dimensions: 21.01 x 13.28 x 1.07 cm

“I recall now the expression on my father’s face—surprised at first, then impressed, then relieved—when the cat we had supposedly abandoned beat us home.”

Abandoning a Cat is Haruki Murakami at his most intimate. Here Murakami gives us the story of his father, the son of a Buddhist priest, who might have become a priest himself had a clerical error not sent him into the Second World War. It is a story of battles fought, both physically and emotionally, on the battleground and at home. It is a haunting reflection on what it means to be a father and what it means to be a son, on familial obligation and personal ambition, told across a century of Murakami’s family history.

Originally published in an abridged edi­tion in The New Yorker in 2019, Abandoning a Cat contains the full version of this poignant autobiographical work by the beloved and best­selling writer.

About the Author

HARUKI MURAKAMI was born in Kyoto in 1949 and now lives near Tokyo. His work has been translated into more than fifty languages, and one of the most recent of his many international honors is the Cino Del Duca World Prize, whose previous recipients include Jorge Luis Borges, Ismail Kadare, Mario Vargas Llosa and Joyce Carol Oates.