What makes Kawamura’s writing so effective is how he dissects the concept of "value." When the protagonist agrees to make cell phones disappear, he realizes that while the device was a distraction, it was also the vessel for his past relationships. Losing the object means losing the memories attached to it.
By the time the conversation turns to cats, the stakes have shifted. The cat, Cabbage, isn’t just a pet; he is the last living link to the protagonist’s late mother. He is a silent confidant, a source of warmth, and a creature that demands nothing but love in a world that often feels cold and transactional.
Kawamura forces the reader to realize that we don’t just own "things." We own moments, feelings, and connections. To remove the "thing" is to sever the connection. if cats disappeared from the world by genki kaw top
In a twist that shocks many readers, the protagonist does not choose survival. In fact, the novel’s quiet climax reveals that he was dead all along—or rather, the bargain was a hallucination, a fever dream inside a dying brain.
He refuses to erase cats. He tells the Devil: What makes Kawamura’s writing so effective is how
“I am not afraid of dying anymore. I am afraid of a world where my mother’s love for that stray kitten never existed.”
He chooses Cabbage. He chooses the memory of his mother’s laughter. He chooses a world where small, furry, indifferent creatures exist simply to be loved. And in doing so, he accepts his own death. “I am not afraid of dying anymore
The final pages are not sad. They are luminous. The protagonist dies with Cabbage curled on his chest. The cat does not understand mortality. It only knows warmth. And that, Kawamura suggests, is enough.
In Genki Kawamura’s bittersweet international bestseller, If Cats Disappeared from the World, a young postman learns he has a brain tumor and only days to live. Then the Devil appears with a bizarre offer:
“Make one thing in the world disappear… and you get one more day of life.”
Simple, right? Phones, movies, clocks… goodbye. But when the Devil suggests cats as the next sacrifice, the postman faces an impossible choice.