Soseki Natsume's I Am A Cat: The Manga Edition

“Chiroru’s adorable cats and lively character designs make this an excellent companion volume, or introduction to those unfamiliar with Japan’s satirical classic.” —Publishers Weekly“The manga provides an introduction to readers who may not yet be ready to tackle Soseki’s brilliant but very long and sometimes challengingly dated novel. And, hey, the cat is cute.”–Otaku USA

Soseki Natsume (1867-1916) is considered the most significant writer in modern Japanese history (he is sometimes called “the Japanese Mark Twain”). Soseki was born in Tokyo and, upon graduating from Tokyo University, worked as an English teacher in a small provincial town. He was sent to London for three years by the Japanese government in 1900 on the first English literary scholarship, where he developed a love for Shakespeare and Dickens. Returning to take up a position at Tokyo University, Soseki began his writing career with Botchan, one of his most famous works, along with I Am a Cat and Kokoro. He is the only Japanese author referred to by his personal name (Soseki) and not his family name (Natsume), and his image appears on the Japanese 1,000 yen note.

Zack Davisson is an award-winning translator, writer and folklorist. He is the author of Yurei: The Japanese Ghost, Yokai Stories and Kaibyo: The Supernatural Cats of Japan, and the translator of Leiji Matsumoto’s Space Battleship Yamato, Go Nagai’s Devilman, and Shigeru Mizuki’s Kitaro. He was nominated for the 2014 Japanese-US Friendship Commission Translation Prize for his translation of the multiple Eisner award-winning Showa: A History of Japan. He has lectured on translation, manga and folklore at Duke University, UCLA, and University of Washington, as well as contributed to exhibitions at the Wereldmuseum Rotterdam and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. He has been featured on NPR, BBC, and The New York Times, and has written for Metropolis, The Comics Journal, and Weird Tales Magazine.

Retold and illustrated by Chiroru Kobato, a Japanese artist. Kobato’s manga adaptation of Soseki’s masterpiece brings Japan’s most popular novel to life while fully preserving its wit and wisdom.