But the big news was when it hit the New York Times best-seller list, our first book ever to do so, and all because of a single review. A couple in their thirties live in a small rented cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo they work at home, freelance copyediting. That same day it was picked up by NPR, we watched as ‘The Guest Cat’ climbed up and up the Amazon sales list to the top 20 sellers. A bestseller in France and winner of Japan’s Kiyama Shohei Literary Award, The Guest Cat (by the acclaimed poet Takashi Hiraide) is a subtly moving and exceptionally beautiful novel about the transient nature of life and idiosyncratic, but deeply felt, ways of living. It got thousands of likes on Facebook, and was heavily retweeted. His rave review is a testament to the power of social media - it was posted by NPR Books, and then reposted by the main NPR site, which has over a million followers.

Only a few people seemed interested in reviewing it, but one of those was Juan Vidal, a reviewer for NPR Books. “It took everyone fantastically by surprise here,” Michael Barron, the publicity director for New Directions, said via email. But it didn’t land its first New York Times best seller until last month, when Takashi Hiraide’s novel “The Guest Cat” - a sweet philosophical story (translated from Japanese) about a jaded couple who embrace life again after a neighbor’s cat adopts them - briefly surfaced on the trade paperback list.

Top Cat: The great independent publisher New Directions has been around since 1936, offering a home to authors including William Carlos Williams, Muriel Spark and Roberto Bolaño.

The guest cat