世界から猫が消えたなら

I first read this book in the original Japanese back in 2016 because the movie adaptation was coming out that same year. One of my favourite actors, Sato Takeru, played the lead role in the movie, which is why I picked up the book in the first place. Honestly, I don't remember much of the plot other than it revolves around a terminally ill MC. Now that it has an English translation, I should probably reread it and see if my rating still stands.

The book is about a postman who finds out that he will die of brain cancer. The devil appears and suggests a deal: For each extra day to live, an item from earth has to disappear (the devil will pick it of course). The postman agrees and starts thinking each day about the impact of the disappearance of simple things such as telephones or clocks.

At first, the story reminded me of Faust - but only because of the deal with the devil. The story went on quite differently. The book made me reflect about the impact of the existence of items in our lives and the emotional attachments. I enjoyed it a lot.

Since I read the book in Japanese, here are my two cents from a learner's point of view. The story has simple language which fits the character well. This also makes it easy to understand even though you might not know all words. The Kanji used in the book are very common and repeated frequently so looking them up wasn't too bothersome even though it has almost no Furigana. I am around N3 and I could understand about 95% of the book (with lookups) - so it is a good challenge without causing frustration. I read the first half while listening to the audiobook. The voice actors talk in an engaging way but quite slowly so they can be understood well. They also differentiate well between different speakers by changing the voice and setting the mood with accompanying ambiance music. The audoo book and physical book matched so it is a good book for a read-along.