Son of two lovers of literature, Haruki Murakami (Kyoto, 1949) is possibly Japan's most famous writer beyond the seas. Influenced for much of his life by the art and culture of the West, a reason that differentiates him from other Japanese authors and has in turn condemned him to more than one criticism by the cultural circles of his country, Murakami navigates in works that could be divided between realism and fantasy, gathering a fatalism formed by the certainty that all acts and incidents make up a single destiny. These best books by Haruki Murakami They help us immerse ourselves in the world of the eternal candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature who this year publishes his new novel in Spain, Kill the commander.
Kafka on the shore
Named "Best Book of the Year 2005" by The New York Times, Kafka on the shore is considered by many as Haruki Murakami's best book. Throughout the pages of the work, two stories intersect, moving forward and backward: that of the boy Kafka Tamura, a name he acquires when he leaves a family home marked by the absence of his mother and sister, and Satoru Nakata, an old man who after an accident suffered in childhood, he develops the curious ability to talk to cats. Endowed with an imagination like few other works by the Japanese writer, Kafka on the Shore is a delight for the senses and the perfect display of the western and eastern influences that Murakami orchestrates with great mastery.
1Q84
Published between 2009 and 2010 in three different volumes, 1Q84 emulates the title of George Orwell's famous 1984, substituting 9 which in Japanese writing is equivalent to the letter Q, both homophones and pronounced as «kyu». The novel is set in a dystopian world and in its first two volumes it intersperses the stories and points of view of its two protagonists: Aomame, a gymnastics instructor, and Tengo, a math teacher, both childhood friends and thirty-somethings immersed in a reality that they perceive differently from the rest. Filled with numerous references to Western art and culture, 1Q84 became a hit when sell a million copies in just one month.
Tokyo blues
In 1987, Tokyo blues It was published making Murakami known to the whole world. An apparently simple story but loaded with the same complexity that characterizes its characters and whose beginning is triggered during a flight in which the protagonist, Toru Watanabe, a 37-year-old executive, listens to a Beatles song, norwegian wood, which takes you back to adolescence. A period in which he met the unstable Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizudi whose silence was equivalent to all the rains falling on the face of the Earth. Pure oriental intimacy shaken by western rhythms.
Chronicle of the bird that winds the world
One of Murakami's novels that best melts the concepts of realism and surrealism it was published in Japan in 1994 and a year later in the rest of the world. A story that comes after Tooru Okada's decision to leave the law firm where he works, at which point he receives a call from a mysterious woman. From then on, a blue stain appears on the protagonist's face, marking his connection with a dimension that begins to flood his life. One of strange characters that evoke the many unresolved conflicts that Tooru has dragged on for years.
Would you like to read Chronicle of the bird that winds the world?
The end of the world and a ruthless wonderland
Although it would become another Murakami classic over time, The end of the world and a ruthless wonderland it remained for years as a rarity whose essence makes it one of the author's flagship works. Divided into two worlds and parallel stories, this book published in 1985 is set in a walled city that represents "the end of the world" seen through the eyes of a shadowless protagonist, and a future Tokyo, or cursed wonderland, where a computer scientist works for a institution in charge of trafficking in information. Dystopia not so far from our reality.
Sputnik, my love
Mysterious and tragic, Sputnik, my love it could perfectly have inspired series like Lost. A drama told by an elementary school teacher named K, whose best friend and crush, Sumire, is an aspiring novelist who sets out on a journey with a woman sixteen years her senior, Miû. After a vacation on a Greek island, Sumire disappears, which is why Miû contacts K without knowing that, possibly, the disappearance of the young woman is due to metaphysical reasons, to the certainty of connecting with another dimension from which she cannot return. never.
South of the border, west of the sun
One of my favorite Murakami books is also one of the most intimate of the writer. Endowed with a unique fatalism and sensitivity, this novel that takes its title from a Nat King Cole song introduces us to Hajime, a married man with two daughters and owner of a successful jazz bar whose life is totally transformed after the appearance. Shimamoto, a childhood friend whom he gave up for lost and who is a hurricane in his life, as hot as it is destructive.
Do not stop reading South of the border, west of the sun.
The years of pilgrimage of the boy without color
Published in 2013, this novel becomes a «classic murakami»By telling the story of Tsukuru Tazaki, a train engineer who, paradoxically, just watches them go by. Plunged into a lonely life, the life of this 36-year-old protagonist changes when he meets Sara, a character who reminds him of a chapter in his life that occurred 16 years ago: the moment when his group of friends suddenly stopped talking to him and for no apparent reason.
Would you like to read The years of pilgrimage of the boy without color?
What are, in your opinion, Haruki Murakami's best books?
Aaah yes murakami. The pedophile who hypersexualizes all female characters in his «» »works» »» pedophile pseudo porno. Sure. Let's see his best works xd