Kafka on the Shore

Kafka on the Sore follows the fortunes of two remarkable characters. Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his father´s dark prophecy. The ageing Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from bizarre childood affliction, finds his simple life suddenly turned upside down. Their paralled odysseys are enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerising dramas. Cats converse with people; fish tumble from the sky; a forest harbours sodiers apparently un-aged since WWII. There is a savage killing, but the identity of both victim and killer is a riddle.

At once a classic tale of quest, Kafka on the Shore is also a bold exproration of mythic and contemporary taboos, of patricide, of mether-love, of sister-love. Above all it is a bewitching and wildly inventive novel from a master stylist. / Haruki Murakami