Kafka on the Shore

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The first step is to download the Fable app. From there, you’ll be able to create your own private or public book club and invite others to read with you. Once your club is created, click on the plus sign under “Currently reading” and search for this book to add it to your club.

By Haruki Murakami

Publisher Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the acclaimed author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and one of the world’s greatest storytellers comes “an insistently metaphysical mind-bender” (The New Yorker) about a teenager on the run and a deceptively simple old man.

Now with a new introduction by the author.

Here we meet fifteen-year-old runaway Kafka Tamura and the elderly Nakata, who is drawn to Kafka for reasons that he cannot fathom. As their paths converge, acclaimed author 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, in what is a truly remarkable journey.

“As powerful as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.... Reading Murakami ... is a striking experience in consciousness expansion.”—Chicago Tribune

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Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.

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Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool

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Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities

11646 Reviews

4.0

Kiju Lee

Created about 2 hours ago

anchitara

Created about 8 hours ago

Captivating

aemynadira

Created about 12 hours ago

“After closing the final page, I sat bemused for quite some time, digesting & contemplating. This novel takes pleasure in turning reality upside down, pushing the limits of imagination by twisting experience within boundaries of reality, without explanation. And that's the Murakami we all know. It's like a book made of riddles that felt almost uncomfortable - not in a bad way -as you're endlessly looking for answers, trying to work out why. 15-year-old Kafka Tamura runs away from home in Tokyo, in search of himself & to escape from his father's twisted prophecy. He ends up in Takamatsu & finds shelter in a library with the help of a mysteriously wise librarian, where the rest of the strange things begin. Unbeknownst to Kafka, his life's somehow connected to Mr. Nakata, a dyslexic old man with a lost memory since World War II, but is given the gift to talk to cats. As the fates of Kafka & Nakata are colliding, it's getting clear that their goals can't be achieved without bloodshed. The closer the plot comes to its conclusion,the more reality loses its shape to the riddle of existence. It goes beyond magical realism & my mind's trapped in chaos that forced me to google "Kafka on the Shore explained" & I came across some interesting theories & analysis on Reddit - of how emotional trauma can leave lasting scars & you may never fully recover without losing half of yourself. Untreated trauma becomes more than a concept & finds way to corrupt your sanity. Urgh. Undeniably difficult, but utterly spellbinding.”

Change and grow Original Gripping/exciting Suspenseful Atmospheric Dark Mysterious Surreal Animal abuse Murder

brett

Created about 12 hours ago

“my first murakami book. and i went in completely blind. so at the end of kafkas story i could only sit there and go “what the fuck” for pages on end. weird — almost unbearably so, sometimes, but murakamis beautiful prose is enough to keep me hooked. also saeki who was a consistent delight. though to me all the sex scenes in the book are the consistent low points. the main character is only 15, and the women he sleeps with are not only fully grown women but one is his literal mother. also all the women are written exactly the same. but nakata’s storyline is what Really makes this book in my opinion. both he and every cat he talks to are likeable. i found myself pining for nakata when he wasn’t there. his cat hunting story line starts off as really cute, then switches to suspenseful and gorey in the blink of an eye. and it works. kafka might be the main character, but nakata is without a doubt the best character in the book. thank you nakata for being the only thing that made the book finishable for me. (because of the aforementioned sex scenes)”

Minor characters stand out Morally ambiguous Original Addictive Clever plotting Atmospheric Beautiful Realistic Surreal Beautifully-written Descriptive Whimsical tone Abuse Animal abuse Child abuse Explicit sexual content Misogyny Murder Violence

sunnylovbooks

Created about 17 hours ago

“nothing more tbh, i loved the book how it is written, murakmi books are written like real life but you add a pinch or more amount of fictional to make it interesting its like a bowl of rich nourishing bowl of ramen for a reader to have in my opinion”

About Haruki Murakami

HARUKI MURAKAMI was born in Kyoto in 1949 and now lives near Tokyo. His work has been translated into more than fifty languages, and the most recent of his many honors is the Yomiuri Literary Prize, whose previous recipients include Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburo Oe, and Kobo Abe.