Kafka on the Shore

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - From the acclaimed author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and one of the world's greatest storytellers comes "an insistently metaphysical mind-bender" (The New Yorker) about a teenager on the run and a deceptively simple old man. 

Now with a new introduction by the author.

Here we meet fifteen-year-old runaway Kafka Tamura and the elderly Nakata, who is drawn to Kafka for reasons that he cannot fathom. As their paths converge, acclaimed author 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, in what is a truly remarkable journey.

Haruki Murakami's masterwork blends magical realism with philosophical depth, crafting a haunting narrative. Following two parallel storylines—a fifteen-year-old boy escaping his past and an aging man confronting mysterious forces—the novel explores themes of isolation, identity, and the thin boundary between reality and dream. Set against Japan's landscape, Kafka on the Shore weaves together surreal imagery, classical music references, and profound meditations on human connection. Murakami's prose captures the disorientation of adolescence while examining how we construct meaning from chaos—essential reading for those seeking literary fiction that challenges perception and lingers long after the final page.

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