The opening pages of a Haruki Murakami novel can be like the view out an airplane window onto tarmac. But at some point between page three and fifteen--it's page thirteen in Kafka On The Shore--the deceptively placid narrative lifts off, and you find yourself breaking through clouds at a tilt, no longer certain where the plane is headed or if the laws of flight even apply.
Joining the rich literature of runaways, Kafka On The Shore follows the solitary, self-disciplined schoolboy Kafka Tamura as he hops a bus from Tokyo to the randomly chosen town of Takamatsu, reminding himself at each step that he has to be "the world¹s toughest fifteen-year-old." He finds a secluded private library in which to spend his days--continuing his impressive self-education--and is befriended by a transgendered clerk and the mysteriously remote head librarian, Miss Saeki, whom he fantasizes may be his long-lost mother. Meanwhile, in a second, wilder narrative spiral, an elderly Tokyo man named Nakata veers from his calm routine by murdering a stranger. An unforgettable character, beautifully delineated by Murakami, Nakata can speak with cats but cannot read or write, nor explain the forces drawing him toward Takamatsu and the other characters.
To say that the fantastic elements of Kafka On The Shore are complicated and never fully resolved is not to suggest that the novel fails. Although it may not live up to Murakami's masterful The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Nakata and Kafka's fates keep the reader enthralled to the final pages, and few will complain about the loose threads at the end. --Regina Marler
Joining the rich literature of runaways, Kafka On The Shore follows the solitary, self-disciplined schoolboy Kafka Tamura as he hops a bus from Tokyo to the randomly chosen town of Takamatsu, reminding himself at each step that he has to be "the world¹s toughest fifteen-year-old." He finds a secluded private library in which to spend his days--continuing his impressive self-education--and is befriended by a transgendered clerk and the mysteriously remote head librarian, Miss Saeki, whom he fantasizes may be his long-lost mother. Meanwhile, in a second, wilder narrative spiral, an elderly Tokyo man named Nakata veers from his calm routine by murdering a stranger. An unforgettable character, beautifully delineated by Murakami, Nakata can speak with cats but cannot read or write, nor explain the forces drawing him toward Takamatsu and the other characters.
To say that the fantastic elements of Kafka On The Shore are complicated and never fully resolved is not to suggest that the novel fails. Although it may not live up to Murakami's masterful The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Nakata and Kafka's fates keep the reader enthralled to the final pages, and few will complain about the loose threads at the end. --Regina Marler
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Used availability for Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore
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Hardback Editions
January 2005 : Hardback
| Title: Kafka on the Shore Author(s): Haruki Murakami ISBN: 1-4000-4366-2 / 978-1-4000-4366-8 (USA edition) Publisher: Knopf Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
January 2005 : Hardback
| Title: Kafka on the Shore Author(s): Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel ISBN: 1-84343-110-6 / 9781843431107 (UK edition) Publisher: The Harvill Press Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
January 2005 : Hardback
| Title: Kafka on the Shore Author(s): Haruki Murakami ISBN: 1-84343-268-4 / 9781843432685 (UK edition) Publisher: The Harvill Press Availability: Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
January 2005 : Leather Bound
| Title: Kafka on the Shore Author(s): Haruki Murakami ISBN: 1-84343-271-4 / 9781843432715 (UK edition) Publisher: The Harvill Press Availability: Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
Paperback Editions
January 2006 : Paperback
| Title: Kafka on the Shore Author(s): Haruki Murakami ISBN: 1-4000-7927-6 / 978-1-4000-7927-8 (USA edition) Publisher: Vintage Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
October 2005 : Paperback
| Title: Kafka on the Shore Author(s): Haruki Murakami ISBN: 0-09-945832-2 / 978-0-09-945832-6 (UK edition) Publisher: Vintage Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
October 2005 : Paperback
| Title: Kafka on the Shore Author(s): Haruki Murakami ISBN: 0-09-949409-4 / 978-0-09-949409-6 (UK edition) Publisher: Arrow Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
January 2005 : Paperback
| Title: Kafka on the Shore Author(s): Haruki Murakami ISBN: 1-84343-228-5 / 9781843432289 (UK edition) Publisher: The Harvill Press Availability: Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
January 2005 : Paperback
| Title: Kafka on the Shore Author(s): Haruki Murakami Publisher: Vintage Availability: Amazon More details... |
2005 : Perfect Paperback
| Title: Kafka on the Shore Author(s): Haruki Murakami ISBN: 0-307-27526-4 / 978-0-307-27526-4 (USA edition) Publisher: Random House Inc. Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
Other Editions
February 2007 : Unknown
| Title: Kafka on the Shore Author(s): Haruki Murakami ISBN: 1-59895-833-X / 9781598958331 (USA edition) Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
February 2007 : Unknown
| Title: Kafka on the Shore: Library Edition Author(s): Haruki Murakami ISBN: 1-59895-858-5 / 9781598958584 (USA edition) Publisher: Playaway Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
January 2005 : Kindle edition
| Title: Kafka on the Shore Author(s): Haruki Murakami Publisher: Knopf Availability: Amazon More details... |
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