Kafka on the Shore

Reading Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami is like getting a glimpse into a world that exists parallel to ours. It’s magical and intriguing, and so “other” – and yet we cannot understand it because we are not part of it. Some of us will still appreciate the beauty, and others will be baffled.

Kafka of the title is a fifteen-year-old runaway escaping a negligent parent and a series of disturbing prophecies. But telling you what they are will spoil the tension. He is also strongly connected to a boy named Crow. Kafka is drawn into a small library and lives of Oshima and Miss Saeki who run the library, each of whom has their own secrets.

Meanwhile, Nakata is an old man who is mentally impaired as the result of a childhood ailment. However, he does have the ability to speak to cats. The talent draws him into a world he could never imagine, and this unlikely hero goes on a quest to protect us all from an unsure fate.

This is one of those books that I simply could not put down. Murakami is an artist in terms of how much knowledge to let you have... bit by bit the mystery unravels in front of you. But like After Dark, you can never fully understand it. And somehow, I was not disappointed. It’s like something rare and wonderful. I have bought three more and will ration myself on them in the next few weeks..