Kafka on the Shore

Regular price $11.43
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$10.29 Thryft Club Member Price

Dreamlike odyssey with magical realism.

Recommended for those who enjoy surreal fiction that explores deeper philosophical questions. The intertwining stories of Kafka Tamura and Nakata, as well as the use of magical realism, creates a mesmerising and thought-provoking reading experience. The book delves into themes of identity, fate, and the human psyche.

  • World Fantasy Award for Novel (2006)
  • Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee for Fiction (2005)
  • Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Nominee for Longlist (2006)
  • PEN Translation Prize for Philip Gabriel (2006)
  • Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis Nominee for Preis der Jugendjury (2005)
  • Tähtifantasia Award (2010)
  • Βραβείο Βιβλίου Public for Μεταφρασμένο μυθιστόρημα της χρονιάς (Translator: Αργυρώ Μαντόγλου) (2016)
  • Premio San Clemente for Lingua estranxeira (2009)
Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.

Kafka on the Shore

Regular price $11.43
Unit price
per
$10.29 Thryft Club Member Price
ISBN: 9780099458326
Publisher: Vintage
Date of Publication: 2005-01-01
Format: Paperback
Related Collections: Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Fantasy
Goodreads rating: 4.13
(rated by 461392 readers)

Description

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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Dreamlike odyssey with magical realism.

Recommended for those who enjoy surreal fiction that explores deeper philosophical questions. The intertwining stories of Kafka Tamura and Nakata, as well as the use of magical realism, creates a mesmerising and thought-provoking reading experience. The book delves into themes of identity, fate, and the human psyche.

  • World Fantasy Award for Novel (2006)
  • Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee for Fiction (2005)
  • Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Nominee for Longlist (2006)
  • PEN Translation Prize for Philip Gabriel (2006)
  • Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis Nominee for Preis der Jugendjury (2005)
  • Tähtifantasia Award (2010)
  • Βραβείο Βιβλίου Public for Μεταφρασμένο μυθιστόρημα της χρονιάς (Translator: Αργυρώ Μαντόγλου) (2016)
  • Premio San Clemente for Lingua estranxeira (2009)
Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.