The Kingdom of Cats

Twenty-six-year-old Shiro Kosaka carries the wounds of a troubled family past and has sworn an oath to himself: he will build a truly happy home with his own hands. To marry his beloved Reiko, he rents a new house, buys a car, and formally asks for her parents' blessing; everything goes so smoothly that happiness seems within reach. But only days after moving in, Shiro notices that the weeds in the vacant lot in front of the house are always crowded with cats. Cats are solitary by nature, yet these cats have formed a well-ordered "kingdom" under the rule of a huge white cat, complete with strict hierarchy and rules of its own. Only then does he recall the landlord's warning: "Never go near the white cat." Every painful beginning lies hidden within happiness. Told through the lens of "the everyday eroded by the uncanny," the novel advances through multiple characters and viewpoints, using the cat society as a mirror for the human world to show how thoughtless malice sets off a chain of harm, and how people waver between arrogance, hatred, and forgiveness. To "have a heart" is perhaps simply the courage to fight for someone you love. This is the first simplified-Chinese edition of the Japanese novel Sumeragi no Kuni, published by Beijing United Publishing Company in 2014.