貓書

by 洪嘉, Ka Hung

戀人各自對將來有不一樣的期待，

雙宿相棲是否唯一的答案？

男朋友偷偷搞移民，

戀愛卻尚在進行中，

一個男同志抱著四隻貓室友，

《貓書》由貓的視角出發，

重新思考家的模樣。

188 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2026

Reviews

[Bill Hsu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't know there's a whole genre of fiction narrated by cats. Ka Hung's second novel ups the ante a bit, being an epistolary novel consisting of letters from a cat to his dead sister. The cat lives with a gay man in Hong Kong and three other cats. The letters are mostly updates on cat hijinks and the life of the human; he dates and breaks up with various men, and deals with Hong Kong concerns like emigration and housing. The cat's take on the human and his failed love affairs/friendships is quite cat-like and often absurd. There's significant emphasis on getting petted, cat food and changing cat litter, but also a charmingly distanced look at dealing with loss (involving the breakups and the dead cat sister).

It's not an easy conceit to sustain for a novel, and I'm usually not into fiction that's self-consciously cute. But I did find this charming and enjoyed most of it beyond the concept. The book design is also very charming. The Chinese title has two characters: 貓 meaning cat (pronounced m-ow, rhymes with wow), and 書 meaning book, but is also an old-fashioned term for (epistolary) letter. The two characters are stretched horizontally on the cover; I'm guessing this is to evoke a meow? There are cute drawings of cats and pawprints through the book. Ok, maybe you won't enjoy this as much if you're not a cat lover.