Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami

This book is for readers who are happy to give their authors plenty of poetic license and for whom talking cats and villages that disappear into magical forests are perfectly normal literary events. Once you go with the flow, you will want Nakata to find the mythical entrance stone and Kafka to find his mother. But be warned - like all magic there is a dark side to this novel.

Extract

The next day when - sure enough - sardines and mackerel rained down on a section of Nakano ward, the young policeman turned white as a sheet. With no warning whatsoever some two thousand sardines and mackerel plunged to earth from the clouds. Most of the fish were crushed to a pulp as they slammed into the ground, but a few survived and flopped around on the road by the shopping district. The fish were fresh, with still a smell of the sea about them. The fish struck people, cars and roofs, but not, apparently, from such a great height, so no serious injuries resulted. It was more shocking than anything else. A huge number of fish falling like hail from the sky - it was positively apocalyptic

Parallels