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Kafka on the Shore

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Kafka on the Shore
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Haruki Murakami
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:512
Dimensions(mm): Height 198,Width 129
Category/GenreModern and contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
ISBN/Barcode 9780099458326
ClassificationsDewey:895.6355
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher Vintage Publishing
Imprint Vintage
Publication Date 6 October 2005
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

"A stunning work of art," the New York Observer wrote of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, "that bears no comparisons," and this is also true of this magnificent new novel, which is every bit as ambitious, expansive and bewitching. A tour-de-force of metaphysical reality, Kafka on the Shore is powered by two remarkable characters. At fifteen, Kafka Tamura runs away from home, either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister. And the aging Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction, finds his highly simplified life suddenly upset.Their odyssey, as mysterious to us as it is to them, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish fall from the sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle. Yet this, like everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.

Author Biography

Haruki Murakami is the author of many novels as well as short stories and non-fiction. His books include Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Kafka on the Shore, 1Q84, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, The Strange Library and Wind/Pinball. His work has been translated into more than 50 languages, and the most recent of his many international honours are the Jerusalem Prize and Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award.

Reviews

Wonderful... Magical and outlandish * Daily Mail * A magnificently bewildering achievement... Brilliantly conceived, bold in its surreal scope, sexy and driven by a snappy plot... Exuberant storytelling * Independent on Sunday * Cool, fluent and addictive * Daily Telegraph * Hypnotic, spellbinding * The Times * Addictive... Exhilarating... A pleasure * Evening Standard *