There’s a Japanese and Korean cozy fiction trend for readers who just want to feel something [Video]

It gets increasingly difficult in the darkest days of winter to find comfort on any level: physically, mentally, existentially.

It’s cold and grey, the world is in turmoil, and slowly, the idea of floating out to sea on an ice floe becomes more and more appealing. Luckily, there are books. And a trending genre called “healing fiction” might just get you through. Better still: It’s about cats, coffee and bookstores.

Also called cozy fiction or cat fiction, and primarily found in Japanese and Korean literature, the genre has taken off worldwide. As the Japan Times points out, these whimsical, escapist books have long been popular in that country, where the iyashikei (healing) genre already thrives in manga and anime.

In Korea, healing fiction has been skyrocketing in popularity among the self-dubbed “MZ Generation,” a combination of millennials and Generation Z who feel particularly pressured to succeed, notes the Korea Times. Easy-to-digest …