As warm and comforting as the meals it describes, The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen is a novel about grief and loss, but also about the beauty and resilience of life. Translated from the Japanese by Cat Anderson, this is the first of eight books in the Meals to Remember at the Chibineko Kitchen series by award-winning author Yuta Takahashi.
The novel's four chapters feature interconnected stories of people with unresolved loss, starting with 19-year-old Kotoko Niki, who has been unable to process her immense feelings of guilt over the death of her brother, Yuito. The director of Yuito's theater company encourages the grieving Kotoko to have a kagezen, or remembrance meal, at the Chibineko (meaning "little-cat") Kitchen in a remote seaside town. "When you eat a remembrance meal at the Chibineko Kitchen, you can hear your loved one's voice again. Their memory comes back to you." And so, in surroundings as mysterious as the restaurant's young chef, Kai, and resident kitten, Chibi, Kotoko experiences hope and transformation.
Takahashi is skilled at creating cozy, tranquil scenes, with light-dappled, evocative descriptions: "the brilliant blue of the sea and sky stretched out to infinity." The charming characters have moving narratives. The food, which is sensorially described, has a starring role as well, with regional and cultural exposition and recipes at the end of each chapter: "The nikogori couldn't withstand the heat for long and it slowly melted, releasing the aroma of the simmered fish."
Just like the meals carefully set out in this book, the stories in The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen evoke bittersweet, fond, and favorite memories. -- Grace Rajendran, freelance reviewer