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Messenger Cat Café
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Messenger Cat Café

By: Nagi Shimeno, M. Jean - translator
Narrated by: Tim Lounibos
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

A heartwarming, magical Japanese bestseller about a cat in the afterlife who must deliver messages to five people on earth to see his beloved owner again

After a long and happy life with a loving human family, tabby cat Fuuta has passed into the afterlife. But he is not as far from his owner Michiru as it seems. Sometimes the divide between the lands of the living and the dead can be traversed.

Eager to see Michiru again, Fuuta interviews for a position at Café Pont, which sits in the liminal space between the two worlds. The café is known for its unique service: its living customers can request meetings with the person they'd most like to see again, through the specially selected spirits of messenger cats.

Fuuta must investigate and deliver his messages without unnerving the living, or worse, upsetting the balance of the universe itself. It is a weighty task for a tabby cat, but Fuuta rises to the challenge. After all, the job offers a special reward: he will get to see Michiru again. And he'll do anything to reunite with his family.

© Nagi Shimeno 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 Animals Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Magical Realism Heartfelt

Critic reviews

I’d like to think that a messenger cat brought the book to me, giving me a much-needed dose of comfort and positivity (Shanna Tan, translator of WELCOME TO THE HYUNAM-DONG BOOKSHOP)
A gentle, tender story that quietly settles into your heart and stays there. Softly magical and deeply comforting, this book... explores grief, love, regret and healing with remarkable tenderness... Fuuta’s perspective is especially charming and heartfelt, filled with warmth, loyalty and a quiet wisdom that only comes from love freely given... A beautiful meditation on love that never truly ends
I’m so glad I picked up this short, heartwarming piece of Japanese literature. It’s cute, a little bittersweet, and surprisingly touching all at once (Reader Review)
This book is so sweet. I loved all the little ways it reminds you to live, to love, and to stop regretting things that you cannot control or change (Reader Review)
What an absolutely gorgeous read this was! (Reader Review)
A delightful escape, proving that sometimes, the most important messages are delivered on four paws! (Reader Review)
This book is so heartwarming… delightful! (Reader Review)
Messenger Cat Cafe is exactly the kind of delightful escape we need right now, and such a charming, effervescent novel that even a dog person like me is recommending it to everyone I know (Lauren Grodstein, New York Times bestselling author of A DOG IN GEORGIA)
Charming... skilfully balances the idealistic worldbuilding and lighthearted perspective of its cat narrator with emotional encounters and the bittersweet reality of life and death. Heartwarming without shying away from serious issues, Shimeno’s book is a welcome addition to the growing ranks of healing fiction
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