{"product_id":"abandoning-a-cat-a-personal-story","title":"Abandoning a Cat: A Personal Story","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA moving reflection on the author's father—plus a cat!—this is a beautiful short work of family history from one of our most beloved, iconic writers.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOriginally published in the New Yorker in 2019, and now presented in a full, unabridged form, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eAbandoning a Cat\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a poignant, self-reflective work by Haruki Murakami.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHere he writes about his father, the son of a priest who might have become a priest himself had a clerical error not sent him into the second world war. Murakami's father wrote accomplished haiku and eventually became a teacher. As Haruki grew older -- as he became an adult and then a writer, he and his father found they had little in common. They were later estranged for twenty years, only reconciling on his father's deathbed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis 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 also on a particular moment of Japanese history, through the aftermath of the second world war on into the present. Murakami fans may find common themes from beloved novels such as \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eKafka on the Shore\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Wind-Up Bird Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e -- but will also be surprised by the raw honesty of this beautiful autobiographical piece.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PRH (Penguin Random House)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67761722032342,"sku":"9798217208692","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0762\/8492\/0022\/files\/9798217208692_d16aa.jpg?v=1792787824","url":"https:\/\/www.riverfrontbooks.com\/products\/abandoning-a-cat-a-personal-story","provider":"Riverfront Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}