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Kafka on the Shore 

Kafka on the Shore (2005)
A novel by Haruki Murakami

 
Awards
World Fantasy
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

 
Used availability for Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore


See all available used copies of this book at: Abebooks UK or Abebooks US
 

 

Hardback Editions

January 2005 : Hardback
Title: Kafka on the Shore
Author(s):: Haruki Murakami
ISBN: 1400043662 / 9781400043668 (USA edition)
Publisher: Knopf
Availability: Amazon UK   Amazon   Amazon CA   

January 2005 : Hardback
Title: Kafka on the Shore
Author(s):: Haruki Murakami
ISBN: 1843432684 / 9781843432685 (UK edition)
Publisher: The Harvill Press
Availability: Amazon   Amazon CA   Amazon UK   

January 2005 : Hardback
Title: Kafka on the Shore
Author(s):: Haruki Murakami
ISBN: 1843432714 / 9781843432715 (UK edition)
Publisher: The Harvill Press
Availability: Amazon   Amazon CA   Amazon UK   

January 2005 : Hardback
Title: Kafka on the Shore
Author(s):: Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel
ISBN: 1843431106 / 9781843431107 (UK edition)
Publisher: The Harvill Press
Availability: Amazon   Amazon UK   

Paperback Editions

October 2005 : Mass Market Paperback
Title: Kafka on the Shore
Author(s):: Haruki Murakami
ISBN: 0307275264 / 9780307275264 (USA edition)
Publisher: Random House Inc.
Availability: Amazon   Amazon UK   

January 2006 : Paperback
Title: Kafka on the Shore
Author(s):: Haruki Murakami
ISBN: 1400079276 / 9781400079278 (USA edition)
Publisher: Vintage
Availability: Amazon   Amazon CA   Amazon UK   

October 2005 : Paperback
Title: Kafka On The Shore
Author(s):: Haruki Murakami
ISBN: 0099458322 / 9780099458326 (UK edition)
Publisher: Vintage
Availability: Amazon UK   Amazon   Amazon CA   

October 2005 : Paperback
Title: Kafka on the Shore
Author(s):: Haruki Murakami
ISBN: 0099494094 / 9780099494096 (UK edition)
Publisher: Vintage
Availability: Amazon UK   Amazon   

January 2005 : Paperback
Title: Kafka on the Shore
Author(s):: Haruki Murakami
ISBN: 1843432285 / 9781843432289 (UK edition)
Publisher: The Harvill Press
Availability: Amazon CA   Amazon UK   

Audio Editions

May 2006 : Audio CD
Title: Kafka on the Shore (Contemporary Fiction)
Author(s):: Haruki Murakami
ISBN: 9626344059 / 9789626344057
Publisher: Naxos of America
Availability: Amazon   Amazon UK   

Kindle Editions

October 2011 : Kindle edition
Title: Kafka On The Shore
Author(s):: Haruki Murakami
ISBN: B005TKC2P2
Publisher: Vintage Digital
Availability: Amazon UK   

January 2005 : Kindle edition
Title: Kafka on the Shore
Author(s):: Haruki Murakami
ISBN: B000FC2ROU
Publisher: Vintage
Availability: Amazon   

 


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