We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida is an award-winning Japanese cozy collection of short stories by Syou Ishida. The English translation by E. Madison Shimoda has quickly become a USA Today bestseller.
This charming book’s popularity most likely comes from how it playfully addresses universal themes such as mental health and the love of cats.
This cute and slightly magical book contains five different stories from characters who are all a little lost in life and desperately looking to improve their mental health.
All of the stories start with a character needing some emotional support; as a result, they all end up at a mysterious clinic with an odd address. No one ever has an appointment for this clinic but they are always seen by the strange medical team.
Ishida illustrates the lengths people will go to when in distress as many patients ignore their concerns about how the clinic operates and remain hopeful that it will be the cure they need.
However, they become doubtful when they meet a quirky doctor and a straightforward nurse, in what seems to be an apartment building.
Despite how unsure each patient is they tell the doctor a list of psychological symptoms with the expectation of being prescribed medication. But instead of pills, the characters leave with a cat and directions on how to care for each animal.
Each cat is specifically prescribed for each person’s issues.
The cat’s temperament leads the characters to discover something about themselves that seems to drastically improve their quality of life. At first most of the characters are in disbelief, confused and even somewhat resistant to how a cat could help them.
Though many of the patients protest at the idea of a cat being a kind of treatment, many have a hard time saying no when they see the cute creature.
The prescribed cat often shows the characters that their lives can be made better with the lifestyle change that caring for a furry friend can bring.
When each prescription has finished its course all of the patients’ lives are changed in unexpected ways.
It often seems like many of the problems are solved with magic, but it is most likely the extra love that enters each character’s life when they have a cat.
Michaela Rye is a librarian at Richmond Public Library.
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