Kafka on the Shore

Two stories braided together: Kafka Tamura, a bookish fifteen-year-old running from a curse framed in Oedipal terms, and Satoru Nakata, an old man who lost his memory as a child and can talk to cats. Philip Gabriel’s English translation was named one of the New York Times’ ten best books of 2005 and took the World Fantasy Award the following year.

Context: third of the four titles under the a16z list’s Murakami author entry — the one that best fits the team’s description of him as a writer who pulls you into “elaborate, bizarre stories” and makes the protagonist’s confusion your own.

Connections

• a16z Infra Reading List — the list this came from; Fantasy section, Murakami author entry.
• Haruki Murakami — the author.
• Norwegian Wood — first of the four selected works.
• The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle — second of the four.
• 1Q84 — fourth of the four.
• a16z — the firm whose infrastructure team curates the list.