Kafka On The Shore

Source; Harukimurakami.com

Kafka on the shore is a perfect blend of fantasy, mystery, humour and popular culture. The book is by Haruki Murakami, a Japanese author famous for his creative, not to mention mysterious, literary work all around the world.Majority of his works are seasoned with Japanese culture to make his readers get a taste of its uniqueness.His best-selling books include “A Wild sheep chase”, “Norweign Wood” and many more.

The book starts with two different but interrelated stories.Odd-numbered chapters focuses on Franz Kafka. Franz is on a run to Takamatsu in order to find his sister and mother.Throughout his journey he would usually communicate with his alter ego named Crow who would always remind him to be the toughest fifteen-year-old.

 “It's like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.”

Even-numbered chapters talks about instinctive Satoru Nakata who lost his memory and other mental functions after the Rice Bowl Hill Incident, as they named it.However, after the incident he realized that he has the ability to communicate with cats.

The story backs and forth with these two characters and in the end it all gets in one chapter. If you ever heard of “The Butterfly Effect”; this is the perfect example.There are not much of characters but they help to leave a big impact on the readers by mentioning not only philosophy but also the classical music, Greek mythology.

“Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.”

                       - Haruki Murakami 

The book highlights how everyone is special in their own way. Although the novel is full of riddles, dreams and fantasies, one may realize how vast and mysterious our world is.

In order to make you curious even more, here's another tip for you. Following the publish of the novel, a conference was held due to numbers of questions regarding the story. When asked, Haruki Murakami said that the key to all the answers is by reading the book again and again. Well, now that will give you an idea how not-so-typical this book is.

Originally Published- 2005(Shinchosa) (JP)

Author- Haruki Murakami