I would give it a million stars if I could to this beautifully heart-wrenching but surprisingly funny book but I also feel that no rating could ever truly quantify how this book made me feel: I laughed out loud, I chuckled and sighed, I cried(obviously considering the nature of the subject matter) but most of all I felt alive and aware of what it means to be human and what makes us human: it is those parts of regrets and lives unlived, those quiet moments when we say nothing or have nothing to say, the missed opportunities to call up long lost friends or loved ones. Kawamura comes across as a philosopher/friend who puts in concrete words those unsolicited thoughts and sudden realisations you have had in those random, unexpected moments in life about your life's meaning and what is going to become of this world after you leave it. Will you be mourned, grieved, and appreciated for the difference you made in someone else's life or will you be forgotten, or worse still your lack of presence will not be felt by anyone at all? These make for some of the questions that this tale provokes in the reader. It was less of a book and more of personal therapy as Kawamura unapologetically pushes us off the cliff into an ocean of deep self-reflection about our existence.

I am so happy and glad that I read this book at this point in my life. It will remain in my memory and heart for a long time to come and I will think of it often as you think of a bittersweet memory of an afternoon spent dreamily with your friends: happy because it was the best day ever but also with a tinge of sadness because it was so short. My world of reading has shifted and expanded after reading "If Cats Disappeared From the World" and my last read "The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly" which was equally heartwarming. Both these books have marked my foray into consciously reading translated fiction and if this is what it's going to be like then I'm not stopping.