Used book: *Kafka on the Shore* [90% new]

The protagonist of the novel is a boy who calls himself Kafka Tamura—the author never reveals his real name. On the eve of his fifteenth birthday, he runs away from home alone and travels by overnight bus to Shikoku. The reason for his escape is to avoid a prophecy made by his father, even more terrible than that of King Oedipus: you will kill your father and lie with your mother and sister. When Kafka was four years old, his mother suddenly disappeared, taking his sister, who was four years older than Kafka and was actually an adopted daughter of the Tamura family. For some unknown reason, she abandoned her biological son. He had never seen a photo of his mother, nor did he even know her name. As if guided by fate, he accidentally arrived at a private library and took refuge there. The librarian, Ms. Saeki, is an elegant beauty in her forties with a mysterious and convoluted past. Kafka suspects she is his biological mother, but Saeki neither confirms nor denies it. Kafka falls in love with Saeki and has a physical relationship with her. The novel also has another subplot, the protagonist of which is an old man named Nakata. While in elementary school during World War II, he experienced a mysterious coma, after which he lost his memory, completely forgetting all the knowledge he had learned, and even unable to read or count. However, he gained the mysterious ability to talk to cats. In a state of mental frenzy, Nakata killed a madman who called himself Johnny Walker, dressed uncannily like the British gentleman depicted on the famous whiskey label, and also arrived at this location by hitchhiking. The novel is divided into 49 chapters, with odd-numbered chapters basically telling Kafka's story in a realistic style, and even-numbered chapters depicting Nakata's bizarre adventures in a magical realist style. The two styles are used alternately, weaving a highly fictional and fantastical modern allegory. Saeki is the focal point that connects these two stories, and the prophecy of patricide seems ultimately unavoidable, because the madman Johnny Walker turns out to be Kafka's biological father in disguise, and the real killer is not Nakata...

About the Author
Haruki Murakami (1949- ) is a Japanese novelist. He studied drama at Waseda University. In 1979, after the publication of his first novel, "Hear the Wind Sing," it was adapted into a film. Subsequently, his excellent works "Pinball, 1973," "A Wild Sheep Chase," and "Norwegian Wood" were published. His creative style is unconstrained by tradition, his conceptions are novel, and his writing is free and unrestrained, yet not vulgar or superficial. He is particularly adept at portraying human loneliness and helplessness, but he does not depict this emotion as a negative thing. Instead, he elevates it into an elegant style and a state of enjoyment through inner intellectual manipulation, thereby providing readers, especially those living in cities, with a way of life or life experience.