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About The Cat Who Went to Heaven: A Tale of Ancient Japan with New Original Music

The 1931 winner of the Newbery Medal, finally in audiobook form with new original music. Elizabeth Coatsworth originally published The Cat Who Went to Heaven in 1930 with illustrations by celebrated artist Lynd Ward. Set in a village in ancient Japan, the tale recounts the adoption of a cat by a poor painter and his housekeeper. At first suspicious of the feline, the painter grows fonder as he depicts a succession of animals in a large silkscreen painting portraying “The Death of the Lord Buddha,” commissioned by the village temple. As each animal appears in the painting, the reader receives a Buddhist folktale illustrating Buddhist teachings of kindness, mercy, and sacrifice. As the painter painstakingly creates his masterpiece, the adopted cat, whom the artist names Good Fortune, demonstrates a devotion to the Lord Buddha and his teachings that surprises and inspires the humble household. Through her behavior and deeds, Good Fortune steadily overcomes the reputation of the cat as the one animal too proud to pay homage to the Lord Buddha. She earns her place alongside her fellow creatures, her place in heaven. While generations have treasured The Cat Who Went to Heaven, this is the first audiobook production of the work. Why? The music. Coatsworth broke up the narrative into eight parts, and ended each part with a “song of the housekeeper” that provided an emotional summary of the preceding scenes. Coatsworth presented the songs, however, as simple poems, and never offered the chords or melodies that would allow a narrator to easily sing the songs. This audiobook contains original musical compositions based on Coatsworth’s lyrics from the text.