Take a glance at some of autumn’s book releases and you might notice a theme. There’s The Blanket Cats by Kiyoshi Shigematsu, We’ll Prescribe You A Cat by Syou Ishida, Cat Lover by Dan Spencer and Invisible Kitties by Yu Yoyo, while some of the season’s most-wished-for titles on Amazon (the fifth book in the Before The Coffee Gets Cold series by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, We Solve Murders by Richard Osman and The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie Gilmore) all feature a cat on their cover. Which raises the question: what’s with all the cats?

“We’ve definitely seen an increase in books featuring cats on the covers,” explains Jen Barrett at Amazon Books UK. “The recent burst is related to the interest in translated fiction – particularly Japanese and Korean titles. The cat is usually synonymous with the ‘cosy’ feel of the book (even if there is no cat present in the book or it’s not a main character), which is why publishers want them to appear on the covers of authors writing about cosy themes, eg cosy crime (Osman) and cosy romance (Laurie Gilmore has two books in the ‘most sold fiction’ chart this week – both are smalltown US romances and both have a cat on the cover).”

Healing cats

As Jane Lawson, deputy publisher at Doubleday, points out: “Who can resist a cute cat on a book cover? The original publisher for Before The Coffee Gets Cold once told me it was a no-brainer to drop a cat onto the cover (that was over five years ago). I’m pretty sure publishers have seen the allure of a cat on a cover for decades. Osman’s books are in the cosy crime space, and cats are a key part of that. These things are all interconnected.”

Part of the cat vogue lies in ‘healing fiction’. “A translator once described healing fiction as a safe space,” says Lawson. “It’s made up of fictional stories that focus on personal growth and self-discovery, designed to offer a sense of calm, positivity and reassurance. I heard it first from a Korean sub-agent – the term didn’t originate in Korea, but it seems to have been popularised there first, perhaps as a response to fast-paced, pressurised lives. So, healing fiction is usually set in a community space. For example, a cafe (eg Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi), a laundry (Yeonnam-dong’s Smiley Laundromat by Kim Jiyun), a library (What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama), a bookshop (Days At The Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa) – the cosy covers often have a building to reflect their setting and it’s been noticed among readers online that publishers love to put cats on the front.

“Which leads me to the ever-growing number of cat fiction titles on the market, which is surely an offshoot of healing fiction, where readers will find many similar heartwarming ingredients and nuggets of wisdom, but with a story populated by cats as well as people.”

There’s a cat in this book

Cat fiction has now evolved to become a publishing sensation of its own. Paul Engles, commissioning editor at Maclehose Press, explains: “It probably started with The Guest Cat in 2014. Since then, there have been one or two cat fiction books a year, often translated from Japanese and increasingly from Korean.

“I think things have ramped up this year because it became clear that it wasn’t just isolated books – they were all doing really, really well. The publishers who have been enjoying success for a while are keen to publish at least one a year and everyone else is getting in on the act too.”

Lawson, one of the key people behind the genre’s original success, grew up in Japan and speaks fluent Japanese. She says she felt an immediate connection with the books: “When I first came across The Guest Cat on a Waterstones table back in 2014, I knew I wanted to publish something similar. I pursued my Japanese publishing contact until he gave me a detailed report on The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa. It was published in 2017 [in the UK], and it’s one of our biggest backlisters – it’s now sold in over 40 territories.” 

“Italy and France are fertile ground while the UK is on another level,” says Engles. “I can only imagine that readers turn to these books for a little bit of light and comfort in a dark world. And cats have a certain je ne sais quoi, don’t they? They are fundamentally unknowable creatures: on the one hand cute and fluffy, but they also have claws. They’re a law unto themselves, and they often drift through many owners’ lives without us knowing what they’re really up to.”

But that doesn’t fully explain the genre’s popularity right now. Are we looking for escapism from uncertain times? For books to give us a sense of real-world connection?

“These cat novels often feature themes that reflect our increasing appetite for safe spaces and comfort reads that counteract the toxic over-productivity that is taking over our lives,” says Lawson. “Perhaps the rise in cosy crime is also related to this trend. The best cat fiction features a talking cat, and like healing fiction, there is often a community backdrop, a gentle vibe, ordinary lives, a touch of fantasy, no astonishing twists of fate and tales of characters whose emotional dilemmas are soothed by the presence of a cat.”

The power of the cat lady

Also crucial to this genre’s rise and popularity are its readers. It’s the sweet spot where book and cat lovers connect, and that – ask “childless cat ladies” Kamala Harris and Taylor Swift – is a powerful and influential online demographic of all ages.

“These books can be quite profound and beautiful as well as satirical, and they can offer great commentary on the ignorance of humans. I would say there is a huge overlap between the audience for cat fiction and Swifties, yes. But there is also a more traditional audience, reached on Facebook. And, with the current state of the news cycle, is it any wonder that we turn to cats for comfort?” asks Lawson.

It’s also a grassroots, often female-led trend away from the lofty world of literature with a capital L. As Lawson further explains: “We rely on the influencer and blogging communities for all the work they do to champion books and drive awareness and recommendation – especially in this area, which does not tend to garner reviews in traditional media – and many of them are actively engaged in this area.”

A quick search of TikTok confirms cat fiction has made a comfy home in its influential book community with 182.4 million posts – the genre’s beautifully illustrated covers and endnotes make for some gorgeous visuals (with reels dedicated to the covers alone) and readers admitting that if they come across a book with a cat on the cover, they will definitely buy it.

The genre has its roots in Japanese literature: “Cats have been an important part of Japanese culture and folklore for centuries, and especially since Sōseki Natsume’s exquisite and hilarious I Am A Cat was first published in 1905,” explains Lawson. “Cats are an essential feature in Murakami’s books too, including The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and are key to some of his plots (in Kafka On The Shore, a character cannot pass a cat without giving it a cuddle).”

A cat isn’t just for Christmas

It’s also worth noting that some of the genre’s fans work in publishing themselves – it’s a trend that’s selling, so obviously publishing houses want to push it. But crucially, they also relate to it. “Cats and books do seem to go together – there are plenty of cat lovers in publishing, certainly. I’m inclined to think it has a lot to do with Christmas gift-giving,” says Engles. “These books are a really obvious present for the cat-lover in your life. A former colleague of mine received several copies of The Guest Cat the Christmas it came out, and I’m sure she wasn’t unique in that. It’s no coincidence that they all come out in August, September and October.”

It’s not so much a ‘which came first’ chicken-and-egg situation. It’s more that cat lovers and cat fiction are working hand-in-paw. “As commercial publishers lean into booksellers and online communities, where appetites and trends often appear first, publishers are responding,” says Lawson. “Book influencers look for patterns and content, and what better than cat fiction to share with their followers?”

However, cats are only just the beginning. “Cat books may be the start, but that is changing rapidly – from the early hits where the cats were the main focus to books where the cat isn’t really key to the plot or barely features at all,” says Engles. “Shop and cafe books are becoming more popular – shops that just happen to have cats lounging around outside. Maybe there needs to be legislation – a cat can only feature on the cover if feline antics account for at least 67% of the narrative (I would probably be doing time myself if this was implemented, I should add).”

At this point, it’s also worth noting that there are a significant number of books coming out with small fluffy dogs on the cover too. They’re probably much more eager to please and a bit less cool though. 

Images: courtesy of publishers