Mornings Without Mii
Checking Availibility...Description
INDIE BESTSELLER
Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by Literary Hub, a Most Anticipated Book of the Winter by The Millions, and a Best Book of the Month by Kirkus Reviews
"I have never read a book quite like this . . . Profoundly real, specific, moving, and beautifully written." -Elif Batuman, author of Either/Or
A beloved Japanese modern classic: a meditation on solitude, independence, writing, and life alongside a cat.
On a cool summer evening in 1977, Mayumi Inaba hears a forlorn cry carried by the breeze off Tokyo's Tamagawa River. She follows the sound to the riverbank and finds a newborn kitten only the size of her palm dangling from a fence, abandoned. Overcome by tender affection, she takes the cat back to the small apartment she shares with her husband and christens her Mii: so begins an ineffable bond.
Over the next twenty years, we follow Inaba, a poet and novelist by moonlight, as she pursues quiet, solitude, and a room of her own. Through it all, her cat, a fiercely independent creature in her own right, is her confidante and muse.
From the late Mayumi Inaba, a winner of the Kawabata Prize and the Tanizaki Prize, Mornings Without Mii is not just a love letter to companionship: it's a poignant, searching meditation on the forces that enable us to connect, to create, and to build a life.
About this Author
Mayumi Inaba (1950-2014) was a prizewinning novelist and poet. Her works include The Sea Staghorn and To the Peninsula, for which she won the Kawabata Yasunari Prize and the Tanizaki Prize.
Ginny Tapley Takemori has translated fiction by more than a dozen early-modern and contemporary Japanese writers. Her translation of Sayaka Murata's Akutagawa Prize-winning novel Convenience Store Woman was one of The New Yorker's best books of 2018, was Foyles Book of the Year 2018, and was short-listed for the Indies Choice Award and Best Translated Book Award.
Reviews
"Mornings Without Mii is a meditative memoir about love, grief, writing, and cats. What a lovely book to curl up with this spring."
--McKayla Coyle, Literary Hub
"A woman writer meditates on solitude, art, and independence alongside her beloved cat in Inaba's modern classic--a book so squarely up my alley I'm somehow embarrassed."
--Sophia M. Stewart, The Millions
"[A] gentle, meditative narrative . . . Cat lovers, prepare to weep."
--Siobhan Murphy, The Times (London)
"[A] resonant slice of Japanese literature . . . It's Inaba's unabashed descriptions of the physical intimacy between a human and an animal that make the book unique . . . A striking evocation of the way we meld our lives and hearts with a beloved creature."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[A] soulful account . . . [Mornings Without Mii] rapturously recounts Inaba and Mii's evening walks, their afternoons spent admiring the Tokyo skyline, and, as Mii started to fall ill, their meditative trips to the countryside . . . This is a must-read for pet lovers with sturdy hearts."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Sure to tug the heartstrings of cat lovers everywhere . . . Profoundly intimate . . . [An] exquisite story, one that is sure to stay with its readers long after they dry their eyes."
--Christine Runyon, BookBrowse
"[A] bracing and beautiful memoir . . . suffused with honesty and emotional heft."
--Linda M. Castellitto, BookPage (starred review)
"Indelible . . . A profound account of caring for a loved one across their entire life and the privilege such care entails. A sweet and timeless act of honoring."
--Annie Bostrom, Booklist
"[Mornings Without Mii] evokes genuine pathos . . . Not only a story of the joy of animal companionship, but also its grief."
--Thu-Huong Ha, The Japan Times
"I have never read a book quite like this. The profoundly real, specific, moving, and beautifully written story of a woman who becomes a writer and falls in love with a kitten, and then lives with these things--both the writing, and the cat--for the next twenty years. I learned new things about myself and my cat, and also about (some) people and cats in 1970s-1990s Tokyo."
--Elif Batuman, author of Either/Or
"Supernaturally insightful and aglow with incidental joys, Mornings Without Mii uncovers something eternal about companionship, about being alone, and about cats."
--Rivka Galchen, author of Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch
"This book is more than a tribute to a companion. It's proof of a world normally concealed from humans, exposed here through the eyes of an artist. Mornings Without Mii captures the otherworldly luck and requisite doom of finding and being found by a cat. I could barely get through it--a compliment."
--Sloane Crosley, author of Grief Is for People
"Marvelous, a cat classic."
--Catherine Lacey, author of Biography of X (on Substack)
If the product is in stock at the store nearest you, we suggest you call ahead to have it set aside for you, or you may place an order online and choose in-store pickup.
