MESSENGER CAT IN A CAFÉ is a heartwarming and sentimental novel about a cat in the afterlife who learns how to deliver messages to the land of the living in hopes of earning permission to see his beloved owner again. The novel navigates themes of grief, regret, gratitude, and the importance of appreciating life’s momentary joys, all within a cozy café setting.

After a long life with a loving human family, white-striped, caramel-coated tabby cat FUUTA has passed into the afterlife—but he is not as far from his owner as it seems. Slight openings bridge the divide between the lands of the living and the dead, and they can be traversed. However, reentering the land of the living within the first seven months after death can warp the earth. Therefore, rules exist to keep the worlds in proper balance. Alongside his new friend NATSUKI, a timid black cat with far too many emotional support toys, Fuuta must spend the next seven months learning how to “live” by these new rules and earn the ability to traverse the worlds to see his owner again.

Fuuta interviews for a position at Café Pont, a café that operates in the land of the living yet exists in the liminal space between the two worlds. NIJIKO, the café manager, explains the café’s unique message delivery service: Customers leave request cards with their name and the name of the person they wish to meet. Nijiko chooses requests with the most sentimental value, then assigns a messenger cat to arrange the “meeting.” But meetings cannot happen directly. The cats can only deliver the soul of the customer’s desired target by temporarily implanting it into an appropriate third party. That person then delivers the message in careful words that can only come from the deceased. If Fuuta doesn’t maintain plausible deniability, he could cause panic amongst the living, or worse: he could upset the balance of the universe itself. It is a weighty task, but Fuuta rises to the challenge. After all, the job offers a special reward: the right to see his owner MICHIRU again—but only ifhe facilitates five total “meetings.” Each successful meeting earns him a pawprint-shaped stamp. Five stamps prove he can be trusted to uphold the balance of the universe. Each of the novel’s five chapters cover Fuuta’s pursuit of a new stamp.