Later on in the book, it is shown that due to his uncanny abilities, Nakata has found part-time work in his old age as a finder of lost cats (Murakami's earlier work The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle also involves searching for a lost cat). The incident is initially blamed on poisonous gas, but it is later revealed that it was the result of a lustful teacher beating Nakata. They start with military reports of a strange incident in Yamanashi Prefecture where multiple children, including Nakata, collapse in the woods - Nakata, after the incident, is the only one of the children who came out of the incident without any memory and unable to read and write. The even-numbered chapters tell Nakata's story. Oshima brings him to the forests of Kōchi Prefecture, where Kafka is ultimately healed. There he spends his days reading the unabridged Richard Francis Burton translation of One Thousand and One Nights and the collected works of Natsume Sōseki until the police begin inquiring after him in connection with the murder of his father that he does not know he has committed. After a series of adventures, he finds shelter in a quiet, private library in Takamatsu, run by the distant and aloof Miss Saeki and the intelligent and more welcoming Oshima. The odd-numbered chapters tell the 15-year-old Kafka's story as he runs away from his father's house to escape an Oedipal curse and to embark upon a quest to find his mother and sister. : 64–65 Plot summary Ĭomprising two distinct but interrelated plots, the narrative runs back and forth between both plots, taking up each plotline in alternating chapters. Psychoanalyst Hayao Kawai saw special meaning in the name 'Kafka', as its Japanese version, Kafuka ( Japanese: カフカ), could be a combination of 可 ( ka, meaning possible or good) and 不可 ( fuka, meaning the opposite), thus giving the book liminality. He compares it to titles such as Genji on the Hudson. The title of the book, according to Alan Cheuse of NPR, is suggestive and mysterious to Japanese readers - Franz Kafka is categorized as a Western writer who is well-known by Americans but is not so in Japan. The novel was generally well-received, with positive reviews from John Updike and the New York Times. The book incorporates themes of music as a communicative conduit, metaphysics, dreams, fate, the subconscious.Īfter the release of the book, Murakami allowed for questions about the novel to be sent in, and responded to many of them. The book tells the stories of the young Kafka Tamura, a bookish 15-year-old boy who runs away from his Oedipal curse, and Satoru Nakata, an old, disabled man with the uncanny ability to talk to cats.

Its 2005 English translation was among 'The 10 Best Books of 2005' from The New York Times and received the World Fantasy Award for 2006. Kafka on the Shore ( 海辺のカフカ, Umibe no Kafuka) is a 2002 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami.

Kafka on the shore online