Cats Can Be Gay Too

Kento Arata spent his first life reading about love. His second comes with paws.

At twenty-seven, Kento is a junior accountant who keeps his boys' love manga hidden and his feelings to himself. One badly placed cat bowl later, he wakes as Mochi: a beautiful Scottish Fold with an inconvenient appetite and a name he would like to dispute.

His new home belongs to Kenji, a quiet man who grinds his coffee by hand and talks to his cat about paper, work and the small disappointments of his day. There is sunlight on the balcony, dinner in a dark-blue dish and, for the first time, no train Kento has to catch.

Then he sees the black cat on the opposite roof.

Kuro is a wary stray with a notched ear and a life spread across the neighbourhood. Mochi knows how courtship works in manga. Kuro has apparently read none of it.

As Mochi tries to win Kuro's trust, Kenji finds himself drawn to Riku, the local vet. Between bowls of kibble, awkward appointments and evenings that last longer than intended, two courtships begin to unfold through the streets and rooftops of Yanaka.

But Mochi's new body has limits, and Kenji and Riku have their own reasons for keeping parts of themselves behind closed doors. Affection brings questions none of them can easily answer. How do you ask someone to stay without making their world smaller? How do you believe you are wanted when silence has always felt safer?

Set among Tokyo's temple walls, neighbourhood shops and changing seasons, TAKU SKY's Cats Can Be Gay Too is a funny, tender novel of magical realism, unexpected second chances and the courage to be known. A story about finding a home-and learning to leave its door open.