Killing Commendatore
A Novel
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4.4 • 47 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The epic new novel from the internationally acclaimed and best-selling author of 1Q84
In Killing Commendatore, a thirty-something portrait painter in Tokyo is abandoned by his wife and finds himself holed up in the mountain home of a famous artist, Tomohiko Amada. When he discovers a previously unseen painting in the attic, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances. To close it, he must complete a journey that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a two-foot-high physical manifestation of an Idea, a dapper businessman who lives across the valley, a precocious thirteen-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt during World War II in Vienna, a pit in the woods behind the artist’s home, and an underworld haunted by Double Metaphors. A tour de force of love and loneliness, war and art—as well as a loving homage to The Great Gatsby—Killing Commendatore is a stunning work of imagination from one of our greatest writers.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The early buzz on Killing Commendatore was that Japanese superstar author Haruki Murakami was putting his signature mind-bending twist on The Great Gatsby, which he’s long cited as his favourite book. But, of course, the wildly inventive author didn’t stop there. Although this dreamlike and wonderfully sprawling novel does feature a Gatsby-like figure—a mysterious billionaire obsessed with a woman from his past—Murakami’s true fascination is the role of art in shaping our lives. Killing Commendatore is as surreal, melancholy, and beautiful as the celebrated author’s very best work.
Customer Reviews
An individual masterpiece for each reader
A true masterpiece. This story contains all the usual characters of Murakami’s mythology. Yet these also show some definite growth and maturity. Like the masterful painting “Killing Commendatore”, the novel seems to have a life of its own, and may bring out different things from the other side of the reader’s reality with each lecture.