本を守ろうとする猫の話

Rintarō was raised by his grandfather and is currently dealing with the death of that same grandfather. As he is still coming to terms with his loss and considering his options on what to do regarding his grandfather's beloved antique bookstore, a talking cat appears to take him to another world and save the books.

I was strongly reminded of the typical story structure of a Ghibli film to a point where I could almost see the scenes animated in that style while reading along. Each adventure Rintarō and the cat went on to save the books involved discussions on the value of literature and the power of reading stories. The way the author took some common attitudes towards books and reading to the absolute extremes, and then pushed Rintarō's idealism to clash with them, was something I found absolutely captivating.

Languagewise, this story included many literary expressions and grammar points. But at the same time, a lot of what is going on is told through dialogue and exchanged arguments that aren't difficult to follow. It is a novel for advanced learners of Japanese for sure, but I believe an N2 level reader could enjoy it just as well as an N1 level reader.