Japanese Fiction

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle : Vintage Classics Japanese Series - Thryft

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Haruki Murakami | Vintage Classics

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle : Vintage Classics Japanese Series

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Goodreads rating: 4.15

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Enter the surreal and enchanting world of Haruki MurakamiToru Okada's cat has disappeared.His wife is growing more distant every day.Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has recently been receiving.As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague and blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and opera and drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out. He embarks on a bizarre journey, guided by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell.'Mesmerising, surreal, this really is the work of a true original' The TimesPart of the VINTAGE JAPANESE CLASSICS series - five masterpieces of Japanese fiction in gorgeous new gift editions.

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Haruki Murakami | Vintage

Killing Commendatore

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Goodreads rating: 3.91

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Imagine you're sifting through the familiar layers of everyday life when you stumble upon a doorway to the mystical—this is what diving into "Killing Commendatore" feels like. Murakami weaves the ordinary with the supernatural in such a way that you'll find yourself questioning the fabric of reality. It's perfect for those longing to lose themselves in a narrative that blurs the lines between the tangible and the imagined.

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Philip Gabriel, Jay Rubin, Haruki Murakami | Vintage International

Blind Willow Sleeping Woman

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Goodreads rating: 3.84

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If you're drawn to the special brand of magic and realism that Murakami is renowned for, "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman" is a collection that shouldn't be missed. The stories here are like puzzles, with pieces of the human experience beautifully interwoven with the bizarre, whisking you on a journey through the surreal. Perfect for those moments when you crave an escape from the everyday into a world that's both familiar and wonderfully strange.

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Ted Goossen, Haruki Murakami, Suzanne Dean | Harvill Secker

The Strange Library

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Goodreads rating: 3.55

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If you're drawn to the surreal and unexpected, Murakami's "The Strange Library" might just be the unsettling yet mesmerizing adventure you didn't know you needed. The odd charm of this story, coupled with vivid illustrations, makes it a brief but unforgettable escape that stays with you long after you've turned the final page.

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Haruki Murakami | Vintage Books

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

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Goodreads rating: 3.84

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Murakami fans will revel in "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman" as it weaves together the strange and the familiar in a tapestry of human emotion. If you appreciate stories that challenge reality and leave you pondering long after the last page, this collection will be a treasure trove. The dreamlike quality often found in Murakami's work is abundant here, enticing those who enjoy the blend of the everyday with the fantastical.

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Haruki Murakami | Vintage International

After Dark

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Goodreads rating: 3.74

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From the New York Times bestselling author—a gripping novel of late night encounters that’s “hypnotically eerie, sometimes even funny, but most of all … [a book] that keeps ratcheting up the suspense” ( The Washington Post Book World ).Nineteen-year-old Mari is waiting out the night in an anonymous Denny’s when she meets a young man who insists he knows her older sister, thus setting her on an odyssey through the sleeping city. In the space of a single night, the lives of a diverse cast of Tokyo residents—models, prostitutes, mobsters, and musicians—collide in a world suspended between fantasy and reality. Utterly enchanting and infused with surrealism, After Dark is a thrilling account of the magical hours separating midnight from dawn.

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Jay Rubin, Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami | Knopf

1Q84 : A novel

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Goodreads rating: 3.94

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This book is a surreal journey through a parallel universe in 1984 Tokyo. With its intricate web of interconnected characters and captivating storytelling, it is a love story, a mystery, and a dystopia all rolled into one. Murakami's supernatural powers as a writer will make you question the boundaries of your own perception and leave you wondering about the nature of reality. Get ready to be entranced and mesmerized as you delve into the mesmerizing world of 1Q84.

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Haruki Murakami | Vintage

The Elephant Vanishes

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Goodreads rating: 3.83

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If you're in the mood for something that nudges the boundaries of reality with a soft, insistent hand, "The Elephant Vanishes" might just be the book for you. Murakami's mastery of weaving the surreal with the everyday speaks to the part of us that suspects there's more to life than what meets the eye, making it a tantalizing read for anyone looking to be gently unmoored from the mundane.

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Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami | Vintage

Kafka on the Shore

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Goodreads rating: 4.13

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Alternate cover edition here.Kafka on the Shore, a tour de force of metaphysical reality, 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.

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Haruki Murakami | Random House / Vintage

1Q84 - a novel

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Goodreads rating: 3.94

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The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled. As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s — 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.

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Ted Goossen, Haruki Murakami | Knopf