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Haruki Murakami

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Kafka on the Shore Kindle Edition

by Haruki Murakami (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

19,748 ratings

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Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his father's dark prophesy.

The aging Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a bizarre childhood affliction, finds his pleasantly simplified life suddenly turned upside down.

As their parallel odysseys unravel, cats converse with people; fish tumble from the sky; a ghost-like pimp deploys a Hegel-spouting girl of the night; a forest harbours soldiers apparently un-aged since World War II. There is a savage killing, but the identity of both victim and killer is a riddle - one of many which combine to create an elegant and dreamlike masterpiece.

*PRE-ORDER HARUKI MURAKAMI’S NEW NOVEL, THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS, NOW*

'Hypnotic, spellbinding' The Times
'Cool, fluent and addictive' Daily Telegraph
‘Addictive... Exhilarating... A pleasure’ Evening Standard

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Review

Cool, fluent and addictive ― Daily Telegraph

Hypnotic, spellbinding ― The Times

Wonderful... Magical and outlandish ― Daily Mail

Addictive... Exhilarating... A pleasure ― Evening Standard

A magnificently bewildering achievement... Brilliantly conceived, bold in its surreal scope, sexy and driven by a snappy plot... Exuberant storytelling ― Independent on Sunday

From the Back Cover

With "Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami gives us a novel every bit as ambitious and expansive as "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which has been acclaimed both here and around the world for its uncommon ambition and achievement, and whose still-growing popularity suggests that it will be read and admired for decades to come.
This magnificent new novel has a similarly extraordinary scope and the same capacity to amaze, entertain, and bewitch the reader. A tour de force of metaphysical reality, it is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom. Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from the sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle-yet this, along with everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.
Extravagant in its accomplishment, "Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world's truly great storytellers at the height of his powers.

"From the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

In 1978, Haruki Murakami was twenty-nine and running a jazz bar in downtown Tokyo. One April day, the impulse to write a novel came to him suddenly while watching a baseball game. That first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, won a new writers' award and was published the following year. More followed, including A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, but it was Norwegian Wood, published in 1987, that turned Murakami from a writer into a phenomenon.

In works such as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and Men Without Women, Murakami's distinctive blend of the mysterious and the everyday, of melancholy and humour, continues to enchant readers, ensuring his place as one of the world's most acclaimed and well-loved writers.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Cash isn't the only thing I take from my father's study when I leave home. I take a small, old gold lighter--I like the design and feel of it--and a folding knife with a really sharp blade. Made to skin deer, it has a five-inch blade and a nice heft. Probably something he bought on one of his trips abroad. I also take a sturdy, bright pocket flashlight out of a drawer. Plus sky blue Revo sunglasses to disguise my age.

I think about taking my father's favorite Sea-Dweller Oyster Rolex. It's a beautiful watch, but something flashy will only attract attention. My cheap plastic Casio watch with an alarm and stopwatch will do just fine, and might actually be more useful. Reluctantly, I return the Rolex to its drawer.

From the back of another drawer I take out a photo of me and my older sister when we were little, the two of us on a beach somewhere with grins plastered across our faces. My sister's looking off to the side so half her face is in shadow and her smile is neatly cut in half. It's like one of those Greek tragedy masks in a textbook that's half one idea and half the opposite. Light and dark. Hope and despair. Laughter and sadness. Trust and loneliness. For my part I'm staring straight ahead, undaunted, at the camera. Nobody else is there at the beach. My sister and I have on swimsuits--hers a red floral-print one-piece, mine some baggy old blue trunks. I'm holding a plastic stick in my hand. White foam is washing over our feet.

Who took this, and where and when, I have no clue. And how could I have looked so happy? And why did my father keep just that one photo? The whole thing is a total mystery. I must have been three, my sister nine. Did we ever really get along that well? I have no memory of ever going to the beach with my family. No memory of going anywhere with them. No matter, though--there is no way I'm going to leave that photo with my father, so I put it in my wallet. I don't have any photos of my mother. My father had thrown them all away.

After giving it some thought I decide to take the cell phone with me. Once he finds out I've taken it, my father will probably get the phone company to cut off service. Still, I toss it into my backpack, along with the adapter. Doesn't add much weight, so why not. When it doesn't work anymore I'll just chuck it.

Just the bare necessities, that's all I need. Choosing which clothes to take is the hardest thing. I'll need a couple sweaters and pairs of underwear. But what about shirts and trousers? Gloves, mufflers, shorts, a coat? There's no end to it. One thing I do know, though. I don't want to wander around some strange place with a huge backpack that screams out, Hey, everybody, check out the runaway! Do that and someone is sure to sit up and take notice. Next thing you know the police will haul me in and I'll be sent straight home. If I don't wind up in some gang first.

Any place cold is definitely out, I decide. Easy enough, just choose the opposite--a warm place. Then I can leave the coat and gloves behind, and get by with half the clothes. I pick out wash-and-wear-type things, the lightest ones I have, fold them neatly, and stuff them in my backpack. I also pack a three-season sleeping bag, the kind that rolls up nice and tight, toilet stuff, a rain poncho, notebook and pen, a Walkman and ten discs--got to have my music--along with a spare rechargeable battery. That's about it. No need for any cooking gear, which is too heavy and takes up too much room, since I can buy food at the local convenience store.

It takes a while but I'm able to subtract a lot of things from my list. I add things, cross them off, then add a whole other bunch and cross them off, too.

My fifteenth birthday is the ideal time to run away from home. Any earlier and it'd be too soon. Any later and I would have missed my chance.

During my first two years in junior high, I'd worked out, training myself for this day. I started practicing judo in the first couple years of grade school, and still went sometimes in junior high. But I didn't join any school teams. Whenever I had the time I'd jog around the school grounds, swim, or go to the local gym. The young trainers there gave me free lessons, showing me the best kind of stretching exercises and how to use the fitness machines to bulk up. They taught me which muscles you use every day and which ones can only be built up with machines, even the correct way to do a bench press. I'm pretty tall to begin with, and with all this exercise I've developed pretty broad shoulders and pecs. Most strangers would take me for seventeen. If I ran away looking my actual age, you can imagine all the problems that would cause.

Other than the trainers at the gym and the housekeeper who comes to our house every other day--and of course the bare minimum required to get by at school--I barely talk to anyone. For a long time my father and I have avoided seeing each other. We live under the same roof, but our schedules are totally different. He spends most of his time in his studio, far away, and I do my best to avoid him.

The school I'm going to is a private junior high for kids who are upper-class, or at least rich. It's the kind of school where, unless you really blow it, you're automatically promoted to the high school on the same campus. All the students dress neatly, have nice straight teeth, and are boring as hell. Naturally I have zero friends. I've built a wall around me, never letting anybody inside and trying not to venture outside myself. Who could like somebody like that? They all keep an eye on me, from a distance. They might hate me, or even be afraid of me, but I'm just glad they didn't bother me. Because I had tons of things to take care of, including spending a lot of my free time devouring books in the school library.

I always paid close attention to what was said in class, though. Just like the boy named Crow suggested.

The facts and techniques or whatever they teach you in class isn't going to be very useful in the real world, that's for sure. Let's face it, teachers are basically a bunch of morons. But you've got to remember this: you're running away from home. You probably won't have any chance to go to school anymore, so like it or not you'd better absorb whatever you can while you've got the chance. Become like a sheet of blotting paper and soak it all in. Later on you can figure out what to keep and what to unload.

I did what he said, like I almost always do. My brain like a sponge, I focused on every word said in class and let it all sink in, figured out what it meant, and committed everything to memory. Thanks to this, I barely had to study outside of class, but always came out near the top on exams.

My muscles were getting hard as steel, even as I grew more withdrawn and quiet. I tried hard to keep my emotions from showing so that no one--classmates and teachers alike--had a clue what I was thinking. Soon I'd be launched into the rough adult world, and I knew I'd have to be tougher than anybody if I wanted to survive.

My eyes in the mirror are cold as a lizard's, my expression fixed and unreadable. I can't remember the last time I laughed or even showed a hint of a smile to other people. Even to myself.

I'm not trying to imply I can keep up this silent, isolated facade all the time. Sometimes the wall I've erected around me comes crumbling down. It doesn't happen very often, but sometimes, before I even realize what's going on, there I am--naked and defenseless and totally confused. At times like that I always feel an omen calling out to me, like a dark, omnipresent pool of water.

A dark, omnipresent pool of water.

It was probably always there, hidden away somewhere. But when the time comes it silently rushes out, chilling every cell in your body. You drown in that cruel flood, gasping for breath. You cling to a vent near the ceiling, struggling, but the air you manage to breathe is dry and burns your throat. Water and thirst, cold and heat--these supposedly opposite elements combine to assault you.

The world is a huge space, but the space that will take you in--and it doesn't have to be very big--is nowhere to be found. You seek a voice, but what do you get? Silence. You look for silence, but guess what? All you hear over and over and over is the voice of this omen. And sometimes this prophetic voice pushes a secret switch hidden deep inside your brain.

Your heart is like a great river after a long spell of rain, full to the banks. All signposts that once stood on the ground are gone, inundated and carried away by that rush of water. And still the rain beats down on the surface of the river. Every time you see a flood like that on the news you tell yourself: That's it. That's my heart.

Before running away from home I wash my hands and face, trim my nails, swab out my ears, and brush my teeth. I take my time, making sure my whole body's well scrubbed. Being really clean is sometimes the most important thing there is. I gaze carefully at my face in the mirror. Genes I'd gotten from my father and mother--not that I have any recollection of what she looked like--created this face. I can do my best to not let any emotions show, keep my eyes from revealing anything, bulk up my muscles, but there's not much I can do about my looks. I'm stuck with my father's long, thick eyebrows and the deep lines between them. I could probably kill him if I wanted to--I'm sure strong enough--and I can erase my mother from my memory. But there's no way to erase the DNA they passed down to me. If I wanted to drive that away I'd have to get rid of me.

There's an omen contained in that. A mechanism buried inside of me.

A mechanism buried inside of you.

I switch off the light and leave the bathroom. A heavy, damp stillness lies over the house. The whispers of people who don't exist, the breath of the dead. I look around, standing stock-still, and take a deep breath. The clock shows three p.m., the two hands cold and distant. They're pretending to be noncommittal, but I know they're not on my side. It's nearly time for me to say good-bye. I pick up my backpack and slip it over my shoulders. I've carried it any number of times, but now it feels so much heavier.

Shikoku, I decide. That's where I'll go. There's no particular reason it has to be Shikoku, only that studying the map I got the feeling that's where I should head. The more I look at the map--actually every time I study it--the more I feel Shikoku tugging at me. It's far south of Tokyo, separated from the mainland by water, with a warm climate. I've never been there, have no friends or relatives there, so if somebody started looking for me--which I kind of doubt--Shikoku would be the last place they'd think of.

I pick up the ticket I'd reserved at the counter and climb aboard the night bus. This is the cheapest way to get to Takamatsu--just a shade over ninety bucks. Nobody pays me any attention, asks how old I am, or gives me a second look. The bus driver mechanically checks my ticket.

Only a third of the seats are taken. Most passengers are traveling alone, like me, and the bus is strangely silent. It's a long trip to Takamatsu, ten hours according to the schedule, and we'll be arriving early in the morning. But I don't mind. I've got plenty of time. The bus pulls out of the station at eight, and I push my seat back. No sooner do I settle down than my consciousness, like a battery that's lost its charge, starts to fade away, and I fall asleep.

Sometime in the middle of the night a hard rain begins to fall. I wake up every once in a while, part the chintzy curtain at the window, and gaze out at the highway rushing by. Raindrops beat against the glass, blurring streetlights alongside the road that stretch off into the distance at identical intervals like they were set down to measure the earth. A new light rushes up close and in an instant fades off behind us. I check my watch and see it's past midnight. Automatically shoved to the front, my fifteenth birthday makes its appearance.

Hey, happy birthday, the boy named Crow says.

Thanks, I reply.

The omen is still with me, though, like a shadow. I check to make sure the wallaround me is still in place. Then I close the curtain and fall back asleep.

*********

Visit Haruki Murakami's official website to read more from Kafka on the Shore.

www.harukimurakami.com

From AudioFile

The art of audio narration has rarely been better served than in Haruki Murakami's brilliant tale featuring two seekers of truth. Sean Barrett and Oliver Le Sueur recount the odysseys of Nakata, an old man who was left simpleminded (but able to speak with cats) by a mysterious WWII event, and Kafka Tamura, a stoic, self-disciplined 15-year-old who runs away from home to escape an Oedipal prophecy. Barrett and Le Sueur turn in superb performances. Their rich characterizations keep this blend of the real and surreal totally engrossing. Philip Gabriel's excellent translation offers a contemporary feel to Murakami's lyrical language and magical incidents. Additional kudos must go to Naxos AudioBooks for gorgeous packaging, including an enclosure listing the entire cast with bios. This is must listening. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005TKC2P2
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage Digital; New e. edition (10 October 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 6.2 MB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 514 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #11,213 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #73 in Contemporary Fiction (Books)
- #715 in Contemporary Fiction (Kindle Store)

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Haruki Murakami

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Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949 and now lives near Tokyo. His work has been translated into more than fifty languages, and the most recent of his many international honors is the Jerusalem Prize, whose previous recipients include J. M. Coetzee, Milan Kundera, and V. S. Naipaul.

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Customers find the book's plot engaging, with one review noting how two different tales converge beautifully. Moreover, the writing style receives mixed reactions - while some find it enthralling, others point out numerous spelling mistakes. Additionally, customers appreciate the book's profound insights, with one review highlighting how it blends metaphysical themes with heartfelt storytelling.

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154 customers mention "Plot"124 positive30 negative

Customers enjoy the plot of the book, which weaves a tantalizing tale with many twists and turns, making the journey infinitely more interesting.

"...the end of memories and their deaths. Overall, the book has many twists and turns with certain elements in the book that are beyond our..." Read more

"...It's one of the books where the journey is infinitely more interesting than the destination and plenty of wonderful thought-provoking quotes enhance..." Read more

"...soul touching dialogues, interesting & quirky characters, to weave a magical tale. This novel is no different and is an absolutely crazy ride...." Read more

"...If you’re drawn to slow-burning, thought-provoking narratives that blur the line between reality and dreams, this book will speak to you." Read more

52 customers mention "Insight"52 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's profound insights, noting its ability to look through metaphors in everything and provide wonderful thought-provoking quotes, with one customer highlighting how it blends metaphysical themes with heartfelt storytelling.

"...It also takes you closer to nature,dense forest,symbolism and metaphors,wisdom words etc.Ther..." Read more

"...more interesting than the destination and plenty of wonderful thought-provoking quotes enhance that enjoyment...." Read more

"...Murakami’s forte lies in using bizarre instances, simple but soul touching dialogues, interesting & quirky characters, to weave a magical tale...." Read more

"...Calm, introspective, and hauntingly poetic. It’s a book I felt as much as I read...." Read more

78 customers mention "Writing style"42 positive36 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the writing style of the book, with some finding it enthralling and readable, while others point out numerous spelling mistakes.

"...Murakami’s writing is surreal and flowing, yet incredibly easy to absorb. Each chapter felt like slipping into a dream...." Read more

"...Cons: Some readers may find this too surreal, no clear explanation for some aspects of the story" Read more

"...The characters are deep yet sometimes simple. The story run between parallels of different people and the time runs back and forth...." Read more

"...I'm rating it 3 stars because it felt like the writer seemed to go off-track sometimes...." Read more

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Top reviews from India

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Sudhakar kadiyala
An intriguing book that leaves you in doubt &confusion.
Reviewed in India on 16 February 2024
Verified Purchase

Some books we read are difficult to understand because of the uncommon things the writer chooses to write about, and it may be possible that,we as readers may endup with confusion & doubts.The book " Kafka On The Shore" by Haruki Murakami is one such book where you need to keep your rationale aside, else you miss the feeling of reading a book parexcellance.The book has two very intriguing characters,one is Kafka Tamura & the other one is Nakata. Kafka Tamura is a teenaged boy & a bibliophile,who runs away from his home,Nogata inTokyo to a far away place called Takamatsu,on his15th birthday.the reason being that, he hated his father & wanted to prove him wrong,from the Oedipal prophecy that he made for him & his repeated curses.He also hated himself for carrying the unfortunate genes that he has inherited from his father and he knows that he stands no chance to change it,but to live with it as a curse. While on his way aboard a bus he happens to meet a girl named Sakura,and they endup making a good bond of friendship between them.The thought of his sister about six years elder to him,who would have been about the same age as that of Sakura & who was taken away by his mother when he was just around four years of age crosses his mind for an instant while, giving him a subtle hint of his fathers prophecy. At Tokamatsu,he visits Komura
memorial library, which was on his list of visits, that he planned,before running away from home Here,he meets Mr.Oshima (a transgender, who was working as an assistant under Miss Saeki - (a beautiful slim lady in her mid-forties and also the boss of the library whose lineage is linked with Komura family).and that we could see an exceptional bond of friendship between them till the end of the book. The mysterious visits of Miss Saeki in the room of Kafka at the library,her constant staring at the photgraph titled 'Kafka on the shore',and later along with the song of the same title brings out the metaphysical relationships that he experiences both as Miss Saeki of 15 years age and also as Miss Saeki,the boss of the library,though looks mystical, but still we find reading something different & intresting.Kafka also sees his mother in Miss Saeki, who left him when he was four years old.
Nakata is another important character,an old man,living on Governors subsidy,helping people to find the lost cats & accepting,whatever little they give back in return.At an early age of nine years,he is into an accident , which makes him lose all his past memory and turns him dumb. His often repeated sentence that "Nakata cannot read & write" and that he is dumb,catches your attention of the charectar with both sympathy & intrest.The mention of Nakata's shadow as being paler or lighter is noteworthy to consider him as incomplete.The way he goes about the words like sub city for subsidy,depart mint for department,minis tree for ministry etc brings out the humor and innocense of the charectar.Bur then,we find that he is blessed with some super natural powers beyond the scope of normal human beings.He can speak to the cats,follow instructions from a dog,and make fishes & leeches rain from the sky,predict a thunderstorm,speak to a stone.On an occasion we find Nakata killing one Mr.Jhonny Walker (father of Kafka which turns out to be the main twist in the story, as elsewhere we find Kafka falling unconscious & getting his shirt drenched in blood & the link of Kafka,Nakata in Johny Walkers murder hints a subtle hint of the prophecy.Besides the incidence also brings Sakura & Kafka together for a night) to rescue a cat and then confessing the same at a police station but they consider him dumb & was not taken seriously.
After then,Nakata proceeds to complete his unaccomplished mission of finding an ' Entrance stone',where he was helped by one Mr.Hoshino,the truck driver who sees his Grandpa in him & helps him in finding the stone with the help of a fictions charecter ,by name Colonel Sanders.Hoshino learns that besides the stone Nakata is on the lookout for something else too,which he can not express,due to his limited thought and so he hires a taxi to go around and finally together they are able to find
the Komura memorial library at Takamatsu.Here Nakata happens to meet Miss Saeki and during conversations and with the touch of their hands,some past memories between them comes to the surface,and Miss Saeki identifing Nakata as the one in the painting.Later Miss Saeki hands Nakata a few files,asking him to burn all and dies immediately after. Nakata also dies later at the room after burning the files given to him by Miss Saeki,indicating the end of memories and their deaths.
Overall, the book has many twists and turns with certain elements in the book that are beyond our normal thinking,but even though you can not stop yourself of going through the experience of reading an outstanding book.It also takes you closer to nature,dense forest,symbolism and metaphors,wisdom words etc.Ther
e are also too many coincidences in the story which are beyond belief but still having read an extraordinary book remains with the reader

Read more

Sudhakar kadiyala

An intriguing book that leaves you in doubt &confusion.

Reviewed in India on 16 February 2024
Some books we read are difficult to understand because of the uncommon things the writer chooses to write about, and it may be possible that,we as readers may endup with confusion & doubts.The book " Kafka On The Shore" by Haruki Murakami is one such book where you need to keep your rationale aside, else you miss the feeling of reading a book parexcellance.The book has two very intriguing characters,one is Kafka Tamura & the other one is Nakata. Kafka Tamura is a teenaged boy & a bibliophile,who runs away from his home,Nogata inTokyo to a far away place called Takamatsu,on his15th birthday.the reason being that, he hated his father & wanted to prove him wrong,from the Oedipal prophecy that he made for him & his repeated curses.He also hated himself for carrying the unfortunate genes that he has inherited from his father and he knows that he stands no chance to change it,but to live with it as a curse. While on his way aboard a bus he happens to meet a girl named Sakura,and they endup making a good bond of friendship between them.The thought of his sister about six years elder to him,who would have been about the same age as that of Sakura & who was taken away by his mother when he was just around four years of age crosses his mind for an instant while, giving him a subtle hint of his fathers prophecy. At Tokamatsu,he visits Komura
memorial library, which was on his list of visits, that he planned,before running away from home Here,he meets Mr.Oshima (a transgender, who was working as an assistant under Miss Saeki - (a beautiful slim lady in her mid-forties and also the boss of the library whose lineage is linked with Komura family).and that we could see an exceptional bond of friendship between them till the end of the book. The mysterious visits of Miss Saeki in the room of Kafka at the library,her constant staring at the photgraph titled 'Kafka on the shore',and later along with the song of the same title brings out the metaphysical relationships that he experiences both as Miss Saeki of 15 years age and also as Miss Saeki,the boss of the library,though looks mystical, but still we find reading something different & intresting.Kafka also sees his mother in Miss Saeki, who left him when he was four years old.
Nakata is another important character,an old man,living on Governors subsidy,helping people to find the lost cats & accepting,whatever little they give back in return.At an early age of nine years,he is into an accident , which makes him lose all his past memory and turns him dumb. His often repeated sentence that "Nakata cannot read & write" and that he is dumb,catches your attention of the charectar with both sympathy & intrest.The mention of Nakata's shadow as being paler or lighter is noteworthy to consider him as incomplete.The way he goes about the words like sub city for subsidy,depart mint for department,minis tree for ministry etc brings out the humor and innocense of the charectar.Bur then,we find that he is blessed with some super natural powers beyond the scope of normal human beings.He can speak to the cats,follow instructions from a dog,and make fishes & leeches rain from the sky,predict a thunderstorm,speak to a stone.On an occasion we find Nakata killing one Mr.Jhonny Walker (father of Kafka which turns out to be the main twist in the story, as elsewhere we find Kafka falling unconscious & getting his shirt drenched in blood & the link of Kafka,Nakata in Johny Walkers murder hints a subtle hint of the prophecy.Besides the incidence also brings Sakura & Kafka together for a night) to rescue a cat and then confessing the same at a police station but they consider him dumb & was not taken seriously.
After then,Nakata proceeds to complete his unaccomplished mission of finding an ' Entrance stone',where he was helped by one Mr.Hoshino,the truck driver who sees his Grandpa in him & helps him in finding the stone with the help of a fictions charecter ,by name Colonel Sanders.Hoshino learns that besides the stone Nakata is on the lookout for something else too,which he can not express,due to his limited thought and so he hires a taxi to go around and finally together they are able to find
the Komura memorial library at Takamatsu.Here Nakata happens to meet Miss Saeki and during conversations and with the touch of their hands,some past memories between them comes to the surface,and Miss Saeki identifing Nakata as the one in the painting.Later Miss Saeki hands Nakata a few files,asking him to burn all and dies immediately after. Nakata also dies later at the room after burning the files given to him by Miss Saeki,indicating the end of memories and their deaths.
Overall, the book has many twists and turns with certain elements in the book that are beyond our normal thinking,but even though you can not stop yourself of going through the experience of reading an outstanding book.It also takes you closer to nature,dense forest,symbolism and metaphors,wisdom words etc.Ther
e are also too many coincidences in the story which are beyond belief but still having read an extraordinary book remains with the reader

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Anantha Narayan
Interesting & thought-provoking; could be too surreal for some
Reviewed in India on 10 August 2020
Verified Purchase
Kafka on the Shore is your typical Murakami book -- it is surreal and has magical or supernatural elements strewn about the book, has hidden messages not all of which is clear even at the end, but is extremely interesting overall.

The book is centred around two main characters -- Kafka Tamura who runs away from home to escape a prophecy and searches for his mother and sister, and Nakata, an old simple man who had a life-altering experience when young. and can now speak to cats. During their journey, we come across an imaginary person who is Kafka's advisor, fish that rain from the skies, a man who kills cats and stores their hearts in his refrigerator, a middle-aged rich woman who evokes Kafka's Oedipal complex, a transgendered gay man, alien abduction, soldiers lost in a forest who never get old, and several similar elements. The title itself refers to a painting and a song besides referencing the lead protagonist.

The book explores the fine line between imagination and reality through the book, and the distinction often blurs for the reader. The explanations for many of the occurrences in the story are never completely clear and Murakami allows the reader to make her own interpretations. As he himself puts it, the book contains several riddles, but there aren't any solutions provided. The form the solutions take will be different for each reader. It's one of the books where the journey is infinitely more interesting than the destination and plenty of wonderful thought-provoking quotes enhance that enjoyment.

Murakami is not for everyone, however. Some readers may be put off by the large extent of surrealism and even for those that enjoy it, parts of the story are left unexplained which can be somewhat unsatisfactory. However, most of his books are page-turners, delightful to read and provides the reader ample opportunity to contemplate the hidden meanings and nuances and Kafka on the Shore is no different. And that's what makes this a wonderful book to read!

Pros: Extremely interesting and page-turning, thought-provoking

Cons: Some readers may find this too surreal, no clear explanation for some aspects of the story

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Sean Kennedy
A wonderful, intriguing novel
Reviewed in Australia on 10 May 2025
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A wonderful, intriguing novel.

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Bryan Desmond
I’ve met you before. In another land, in another library.
Reviewed in the United States on 18 February 2021
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Well, this was impressive.

I have read one other Haruki Murakami novel some years ago, that being Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and while I really enjoyed that book, this one I loved. And besides, I can feel echoes of that one in this one, and those kind of connections bring me great joy, whether I am projecting them or not.

What to even say about this book? What to say about Haruki Murakami? His works have the interestingly dichotomous ability to mix feelings of the small and the large, the personal and the sweeping, the banal and the mystical. Often while reading I'll find myself thinking... "What the f***?" And I can answer this only with the mantra: "No idea, it's Murakami." Some people maybe can't get behind that and still enjoy the novel, but I love it. The bizarre occurs without explanation, and the dreamlike is commonplace. He leads you from one question to the next so effectively that even when you don't circle back around for the answers, you're having too much fun to mind.

And Murakami's sheer skill... His prose is excellent by default, and ranges into the beautiful. He paints a vivid picture without being overly descriptive, and he allows you to sink into a sort of flavor of a mood. There seems to be a very human understanding that bleeds through onto the page, and not just in his prose but in his character work. He taps into the heart of things, and reminds you why life's simple pleasures are pleasures in the first place. This is a man who seems to truly live, a man who knows how to take his loves and interests and inject them into a story that sticks with you.

Kafka on the Shore is at its heart the inexorable, tidal pulling of two disparate storylines. That of Kafka Tamura, 15-year-old runaway haunted by a dark prophecy, and that of Satoru Nakata, an old man who suffered a childhood affliction that left him... different. How these two stories interact and interweave will leave you feeling like you're reading a riddle at times. Thematically he is playing with dreams, imagination, and responsibility. The darkness of the human subconscious. Ghosts. Memory. Time. Libraries.... Honestly, I find the book hard to capture in words, futile devices that they are. There were sections of it where I even doubted the reality of what I was reading. I mean, my favorite character in the book was probably Colonel Sanders. Do with that what you will.

So much of this story takes place in that dark, ethereal labyrinth of your mind that it feels like you can only accurately explain half of it. And that second, unexplainable half is where the true magic lies. Which is, I believe, why I'm so drawn to his stories; they leave much to the imagination, and there is plenty leftover to ponder. Nothing is so tantalizing as the unknown, and Murakami understands that deeply. But as strange as the novel is at times, it really is beautiful. Emotionally effective, to say the least. I want to use the word gorgeous, even. The character work feels genuine, borderline romanticized. And the entire work is so intricately interwoven that it feels like the kind of thing you could jump right back into when you finish, which may have even been Murakami's intention.

If you can't tell by the unfiltered praise, I loved this book. It belongs on my favorites shelf, I think. I don't think it's for everyone. It was overtly sexual in a way that caught me off guard, and in a way that I can imagine will make some readers uncomfortable. There are also scenes of overt, sometimes shocking, violence. But I don't fault Murakami for exploring the dark recesses of the human experience, or of stories in general. In fact, I think it would feel strange were those areas of darkness missing.

Having just finished, I have that same sort of melancholic regret that I sometimes have when I finish a Ghibli movie; a long journey well-ended, characters coming full-circle with lessons learned, a strange new world that I want to stay in a little while longer. Needless to say, I'll be reading more of his work.

"Time weighs down on you like an old, ambiguous dream. You keep on moving, trying to slip through it. But even if you go to the ends of the earth, you won’t be able to escape it. Still, you have to go there—to the edge of the world. There’s something you can’t do unless you get there."

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Yuk ying wong
Bend bok
Reviewed in Sweden on 9 March 2025
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Allt är bend

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Yuk ying wong

Bend bok

Reviewed in Sweden on 9 March 2025
Allt är bend

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Richard L.
Just roll with it and enjoy the ride
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2025
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If you are happy with ambiguity, unanswered riddles and subplots that fizzle without obvious reason then this is for you, otherwise, steer clear.

Any book with “Kafka” in the title is likely to be a bit Kafkaesque, and so this is. The backbone of the plot is an Odipeal prophecy; the child kills his dad and then sleeps with his mum and sister. The reader is taken on a journey of two intertwining storylines with much contradicting evidence of how the prophecy is going. Along the way, there is plenty of surreal humour, philosophical reflections, observations of the banal made interesting (and vice versa), riddles (many of which remain unsolved), and events that don’t move the story but still feel worthwhile.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and will undoubtedly spend the next few weeks pointlessly trying to find the actual meaning. I suspect Murakami enjoys teasing his readers, mixing messages alongside surreal fun, or burying the meaning so deep it is unretrievable. I feel I have been played with, but it doesn’t matter; it provoked enormous interest in me. The enjoyment is in the chase, the fact I don’t feel I have made a catch seems incidental.

The unanswered riddles are likely to annoy some readers. The reader is often offered two equally implausible answers/solutions to a riddle with both being possible within this kafkaesque world, and maybe both are simultaneously true in a Schrodinger’s cat sort of way.

I had one gripe. Each character spoke with a distinctive voice, all synced perfectly with the context. That is all except one (Hoshino) who is oddly the character Murakami appears to want to be the most normal. To me he seemed fake; like a bad actor in a good film. Maybe it is a translation issue or another Murakami tease that I misunderstood, but it bothered me; every time Hoshino spoke I winced. In all other respects a full 5 stars.

Many readers will be irritated by the unanswered questions. Murakami often insists you accept things as they are, even if nonsensical; you won’t get a better explanation other than “that is the way it is.” I loved it and will likely reread it, but I will likely be no wiser. Did the Odipeal prophecy play out? I think it does, and yet I don’t think so, or maybe it does and doesn’t at the same time...

Many reviewers suggest, just go with it and enjoy the ride; sound advice.

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Onur
Metaphorical Journey
Reviewed in the Netherlands on 25 November 2024
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The book keeps me interested with the characters most of the time. Still having a lot of questions about the past of Miss Saeki, and the mission of Nakata but the book gave me a lot of reflection of our choices and it's impact on fate. Some things is just simply meant to be.

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