First Person Singular
Stories
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4.0 • 11 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
A mindbending new collection of short stories from the unique, internationally acclaimed author of Norwegian Wood and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
The eight masterly stories in this new collection are all told in the first person by a classic Murakami narrator. From nostalgic memories of youth, meditations on music and an ardent love of baseball to dreamlike scenarios, an encounter with a talking monkey and invented jazz albums, together these stories challenge the boundaries between our minds and the exterior world. Occasionally, a narrator who may or may not be Murakami himself is present. Is it memoir or fiction? The reader decides.
Philosophical and mysterious, the stories in First Person Singular all touch beautifully on love and solitude, childhood and memory. . . all with a signature Murakami twist.
A GUARDIAN AND SUNDAY TIMES 'BOOKS OF 2021' PICK
Customer Reviews
Like his old work
It reads like old Murakami, which I prefer, before his stories were saturated with overly sexual images. These are more delicate and leave you with the classic Murakami sense of intrigue when you finish each story, but long to know more.
A Return to Form
As an avid Murakami reader, I have found that most his works in the last 2 decades since Kafka on the Shore to be underwhelming compared to his output up until then. From the marvellous first story, “Cream”, onwards this collection is a long awaited return to form. Once again we are seamlessly transported from mundane moments of daily life into the surreal and extraordinary. At its best, his fiction is capable of posing fundamental questions about modern life that elude almost any other contemporary writer. Highly recommended.