Rare Book of the Day – Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami. Advance Reader's Edition.

I'm a big fan of Haruki Murakami. I fully expected him to win the Nobel Prize last year but, hailing from Duluth myself, I can't say I was too disappointed Bob Dylan won. Anyway, Murakami is a Japanese writer born in 1949. He didn't start writing until the age of 29: "Before that", he said, "I didn't write anything. I was just one of those ordinary people. I was running a jazz club, and I didn't create anything at all." His first three novels saw some success in Japan, but it wasn't until his fifth, Norwegian Wood, that he was catapulted into international success. He has since achieved critical acclaim, with his work being translated into more than fifty languages, and has received numerous major literary awards.

Kafka on the Shore, his tenth novel, was published in 2002. There are two parallel stories at work – The first recounts the experiences of Kafka Tamura, a 15-year-old who runs away from his father's house to escape a curse and to find his mother and sister. The other tale is of an old man, Nakata, who has uncanny ability as a finder of lost cats. It features Murakami's Murakami's typical blend of popular culture, mundane detail, magical realism, suspense, humor, an involved plot, and potent sexuality. Per the author:

“Kafka on the Shore contains several riddles, but there aren't any solutions provided. Instead, several of these riddles combine, and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes shape. And the form this solution takes will be different for each reader. To put it another way, the riddles function as part of the solution. It's hard to explain, but that's the kind of novel I set out to write.”

This is the Advance Reader's Edition, sent out to bookstores for review before publication:

Murakami:

More info here:
http://www.rarebooksleuth.com/featured/kafka-on-the-shore-haruki-murakami-advance-readers-edition