Kafka on the Shore

Kafka on the Shore 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 da...

Kafka on the Shore 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.

As their paths converge, and the reasons for that convergence become clear, Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder. Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world’s great storytellers at the peak of his powers.

村上春樹（1949- ），日本小說家。曾在早稻田大學(xué)文學(xué)部戲劇科就讀。1979年，他的第一部小說《聽風(fēng)之歌》問世后，即被搬上了銀幕。隨后，他的優(yōu)秀作品《1973年的彈子球》、《尋羊冒險記》、《挪威的森林》等相繼發(fā)表。他的創(chuàng)作不受傳統(tǒng)拘束，構(gòu)思新奇，行文瀟灑自在，而又不流于庸俗淺薄。尤其是在刻畫人的孤獨無奈方面更有特色，他沒有把這種情緒寫成負(fù)的東西，而是通過內(nèi)心的心智性操作使之升華為一種優(yōu)雅的格調(diào)，一種樂在其中的境界，以此來為讀者，尤其是生活在城市里的人們提供了一種生活模式或生命的體驗。