



Kafka on the Shore
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4.5 • 557 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world’s great storytellers at the peak of his powers.
Here we meet a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who is on the run, and Nakata, an aging simpleton who is drawn to Kafka for reasons that he cannot fathom. As their paths converge, acclaimed author Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder, in what is a truly remarkable journey.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Previous books such as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood have established Murakami as a true original, a fearless writer possessed of a wildly uninhibited imagination and a legion of fiercely devoted fans. In this latest addition to the author's incomparable oeuvre, 15-year-old Kafka Tamura runs away from home, both to escape his father's oedipal prophecy and to find his long-lost mother and sister. As Kafka flees, so too does Nakata, an elderly simpleton whose quiet life has been upset by a gruesome murder. (A wonderfully endearing character, Nakata has never recovered from the effects of a mysterious World War II incident that left him unable to read or comprehend much, but did give him the power to speak with cats.) What follows is a kind of double odyssey, as Kafka and Nakata are drawn inexorably along their separate but somehow linked paths, groping to understand the roles fate has in store for them. Murakami likes to blur the boundary between the real and the surreal we are treated to such oddities as fish raining from the sky; a forest-dwelling pair of Imperial Army soldiers who haven't aged since WWII; and a hilarious cameo by fried chicken king Colonel Sanders but he also writes touchingly about love, loneliness and friendship. Occasionally, the writing drifts too far into metaphysical musings mind-bending talk of parallel worlds, events occurring outside of time and things swirl a bit at the end as the author tries, perhaps too hard, to make sense of things. But by this point, his readers, like his characters, will go just about anywhere Murakami wants them to, whether they "get" it or not.
Customer Reviews
Kafka Kafka Kafka
Wonderful book which takes you on a wonderful journey
one of my favorite books
the perfect mix of surrealism, metaphysics, hilarity, & realism: everything it means to be human expressed in the most unbeliavably imaginative manner.
Wow
If you're not used to Murakami's bizarre writing style, I think you'll either love this book or be lost. Murakami takes you through the stories of two individuals that are both searching for something quite important. It is truly an emotional, humanistic tale that takes you on quite a ride. I would highly recommend this book. It's fantastic.