Abandoning a Cat

In this meditation on memory and what makes us who we are, Haruki Murakami recalls his relationship with his father - the son of a priest who might have become a priest himself had a clerical error not sent him to fight in the Second World War. Murakami`s father wrote accomplished haiku and eventually became a teacher, but as Haruki grew older they found they had less and less in common. They went on to be estranged for twenty years, only reconciling on his father`s deathbed. This haunting personal essay is a reflection on what it means to be a father and what it means to be a son - on what it means to be loved and to be abandoned - and a meditation on a particular era of Japanese history, through the aftermath of the Second World War and on into the present. It is a beautiful short work of family history from one of the world`s most beloved, iconic writers.