I Am a Cat

Volume One

Natsume Soseki, Nick Bradley

$32.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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Japanese

Vintage
02 September 2025

Fiction & Literature; Classic fiction (pre c 1945); Fiction in translation; Animals & society; Cats as pets

The original Japanese Cat-Lit Classic. Now published in a new translation by Nick Bradley, author of The Cat and the City

Discover the original Japanese Cat classic, now in a vibrant new translation by Nick Bradley, author of The Cat and the City.

'I am a Cat. But I still don't have a name...'

Once a stray kitten, I Am a Cat's narrator finds himself adopted by a local scholar and thrown headfirst into the absurd upper middle-class world of Meiji-era Japan. Now a noble but somewhat world-weary observer, he has ample opportunity to dissect the strange ways and convoluted conversations of the human race.

First published at the turn of the 20th century, and regarded as one of Japan's most iconic classics, I Am a Cat is a captivating exploration of identity, society, and the often bewildering nature of the human condition-all seen through the eyes of a very special, uncompromising cat.

'A biting satire of Meiji-era Japan' Jessie Burton, Guardian

'Soseki is the representative modern Japanese novelist, a figure of truly national stature' Haruki Murakami

By: Natsume Soseki
Translated by: Nick Bradley
Imprint: Vintage
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 135mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 500g
ISBN: 9781784879792
ISBN 10: 1784879797
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 02 September 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Nick Bradley (Translator) Nick Bradley is the author of THE CAT AND THE CITY (2020) and FOUR SEASONS IN JAPAN (2023). In 2024 he was chosen by The British Council and The National Centre for Writing as one of ten rising stars in UK writing. His work has so far been translated into twenty languages. He lived in Japan for many years where he worked as a translator, and currently teaches on the Creative Writing master's programme at the University of Cambridge and also taught on the Creative Writing Prose Fiction MA at UEA.

Reviews for I Am a Cat: Volume One

A nonchalant string of anecdotes and wisecracks, told by a fellow who doesn't have a name, and has never caught a mouse, and isn't much good for anything except watching human beings in action * New Yorker *