In this collection of 25 short stories, Haruki Murakami draws the reader into his wondrously addictive literary world: a fabulist land filled with illogical acts, inexplicable disappearances, and talking animals. Murakami is a master of magic-realism, but unlike his Latin-American predecessors, his stories are not lush and verdant, but rather are a...more

In South of the Border, West of the Sun the arc of an average man's life from childhood to middle age with its attendant rhythms of success and disappointment becomes the kind of exquisite literary conundrum that is Haruki Murakami's trademark. The plot is simple: Hajime meets and falls in love with a girl in elementary school but loses touch wi...more

“Youthful, slangy, political, and allegorical, Murakami is a writer who seems to be aware of every current American novel and popular song. Yet . . . [A Wild Sheep Chase] is clearly rooted in modern Japan.” —The New York Times“In every society, Murakami’s works are first accepted as texts that assuage the political disillusionment, romant...more

Cats slink across the pages; the seasons are marked by cherry blossom and Japanese maple; spaghetti strands or telephone cords separate the days; and a generous selection of quotations, extracts, and facts from Murakami's novels and stories appear on almost every page to inspire, amuse, or entertain. This is a diary like no other, faithful to all...more