Kafka on the Shore

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - From the New York Times bestselling 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 an aging simpleton.

Here we meet 15-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." --The Chicago Tribune

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Published Oct 6, 2005

480 pages

Average rating: 7.52

244 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say "Kafka on the Shore" showcases Haruki Murakami’s distinctive, lyrical style and imaginative storytelling, blending the real with the fanta...

yammy
Nov 06, 2025
6/10 stars
One of Murakami’s better novels, but not really a fan of his work.
kathie
Jan 11, 2025
8/10 stars
This book had some similar themes as other Murakami books, so if you’ve read some of his other work, it’ll feel familiar. It’s a little mysterious and a little weird, but that’s what makes it fun to read. The ending is satisfying, and despite all the weird parts, the messages and ideas are very compatible with average life.

Merged review:

This book had some similar themes as other Murakami books, so if you’ve read some of his other work, it’ll feel familiar. It’s a little mysterious and a little weird, but that’s what makes it fun to read. The ending is satisfying, and despite all the weird parts, the messages and ideas are very compatible with average life.
Anitathapaj
Jan 10, 2025
A good, mystical fantasy
PackSunshine
Jan 05, 2025
10/10 stars
I don't think I know what this book is about. Identity? Time? Love? Memories of love? I have no idea. Halfway through the book I started taking my pencil to it and underlining the "important" parts, hoping I'd get things connected. Yes, things are connected. For better or worse, I'm not sure that helps. It's got some incredibly great quotes, too numerous to try to list.

Still, I give it a 5, just for the sake of the incredible writing and being food for thought. Maybe I'll read it over, maybe some of it will fall into place. It's abstract art. Bring to it, from it whatever you want.
miguel
Oct 15, 2024
8/10 stars
What a weird story! Kind of at a loss for words on how to describe the feeling after finishing this. The story flowed well, and I was definitely entertained the whole way through. One of those stories where you have NO idea where it is heading. The only thing I didn’t like was all the sexual parts and incest related shit…

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