Author: Haruki Murakami Kafka On The Shore blends fables, legends and mysteries sprinkled with reality. It revolves around two characters, one a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura and the other an adorable and pitiable, Satoru Nakata. Kafka Tamura is a fourteen-year-old runaway who escapes home in search of meaning and to distance himself of his father’s malevolence. Fate leads him to the town of Takamastu. Here, he finds shelter in a library and a mentor in Oshima, a librarian, who is a trans sexual gay. Alternate chapters relate the story of Satoru Nakata who loses higher intellectual functions in a world war 2 accident, under mysterious circumstances. This accident, on the upside, gives him the ability to converse with cats. The plot unfolds as Koichi Tamura, Kafka’s father coerces Nakata into murdering him. This renders him into a journey to right the wrong and restore the balance. He is accompanied on this journey by a disciple who facilitates this process by his own self discovery and encounter with fate in the form of a ghost like pimp. From fish rains to a journey into the after world, the disparate stories of the heroes converge in the library where Miss Saeki connects the dots. Kafka on the Shore is comprehensive – both in its reach and ambition. It is both suspenseful and mysterious, drawing readers to the finish- a real page turner. While it manages to create a surreal experience Murukami does well in delivering a coherent finishing touch.]]>
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