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Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Read An Excerpt

Look Inside | Reading Guide

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Read An Excerpt

Kafka on the Shore

By Haruki Murakami

By Haruki Murakami

By Haruki Murakami

By Haruki Murakami

By Haruki Murakami
Read by Sean Barrett and Oliver Le Sueur

By Haruki Murakami
Read by Sean Barrett and Oliver Le Sueur

Part of Vintage International

Part of Vintage International

Category: Literary Fiction | Contemporary Fantasy

Category: Literary Fiction | Contemporary Fantasy

Category: Literary Fiction | Contemporary Fantasy | Audiobooks

Read An Excerpt

Look Inside | Reading Guide

Read An Excerpt

Reading Guide

Read An Excerpt

Reading Guide

Paperback $16.00

Jan 03, 2006 | 480 Pages

Ebook $11.99

Jan 18, 2005 | 448 Pages

Audiobook Download $27.50

Aug 06, 2013 | 1149 Minutes

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    Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
    Paperback
    Jan 03, 2006 | 480 Pages
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    Paperback
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    • Paperback $16.00

      Jan 03, 2006 | 480 Pages

    Ebook
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    • Ebook $11.99

      Jan 18, 2005 | 448 Pages

    Audio
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    About Kafka on the Shore

    Kafka on the Shore 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.

    As their paths converge, and the reasons for that convergence become clear, 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. Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world’s great storytellers at the peak of his powers.

    About Kafka on the Shore

    Kafka on the Shore 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.

    As their paths converge, and the reasons for that convergence become clear, 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. Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world’s great storytellers at the peak of his powers.


    From the Trade Paperback edition.

    About Kafka on the Shore

    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.

    Also by Haruki Murakami

    Men Without Women
    Absolutely on Music
    Hear the Wind Sing
    Pinball, 1973
    Wind/Pinball
    See all books by Haruki Murakami

    Also by Haruki Murakami

    Men Without Women
    Absolutely on Music
    Hear the Wind Sing
    Pinball, 1973
    Wind/Pinball
    See all books by Haruki Murakami

    Also by Haruki Murakami

    Men Without Women
    Absolutely on Music
    Hear the Wind Sing
    Pinball, 1973
    Wind/Pinball
    See all books by Haruki Murakami

    About Haruki Murakami

    Haruki Murakami is a best-selling Japanese writer. His works of fiction and non-fiction have garnered critical acclaim and numerous awards, including the Franz Kafka Prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and the Jerusalem Prize, among others. Murakami’s fiction is… More about Haruki Murakami

    About Haruki Murakami

    Haruki Murakami is a best-selling Japanese writer. His works of fiction and non-fiction have garnered critical acclaim and numerous awards, including the Franz Kafka Prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and the Jerusalem Prize, among others. Murakami’s fiction is… More about Haruki Murakami

    About Haruki Murakami

    Haruki Murakami is a best-selling Japanese writer. His works of fiction and non-fiction have garnered critical acclaim and numerous awards, including the Franz Kafka Prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and the Jerusalem Prize, among others. Murakami’s fiction is… More about Haruki Murakami

    Product Details

    Paperback | $16.00
    Published by Vintage
    Jan 03, 2006 | 480 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9781400079278

    Ebook | $11.99
    Published by Vintage
    Jan 18, 2005 | 448 Pages | 6-1/4 x 9-1/4 | ISBN 9781400044818

    Audiobook Download | $27.50
    Published by Random House Audio
    Aug 06, 2013 | 1149 Minutes | ISBN 9780804166553

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    Praise

    “As powerful as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. . . . Reading Murakami . . . is a striking experience in consciousness expansion.” –The Chicago Tribune

    “An insistently metaphysical mind-bender.”
    –The New Yorker

    “If he has not achieved that status already, Haruki Murakami is on course to becoming the most widely read Japanese writer outside Japan, past or present.”
    –New York Times

    Awards

    ALA Notable Adult Books SELECTION 2006

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