Best Murakami Books for Fiction Lovers

Best Murakami Books

The literary genius Haruki Murakami is a Japanese author who started writing at the age of 29 has come to rule the literary scene with his interesting plot lines and immaculate storytelling skills. His distinctive magical-realist style is both deceptively simple and dense, delving into the interior lives of his characters in a very literal fashion. He is considered among the greatest living novelists by many literary critics. There are many people have heard so much about him but can't be able to realize which book will be the top book of Murakami to start from.

If you haven't yet ventured the wonderful world of Haruki Mukarami, here you will get the list of 10 best Murakami books to discover the writing of this literacy magician.

Kafka on the Shore
Author: Haruki Murakami
Published at: 03/01/2006
ISBN: 1400079276

Kafka on the Shore, a beautifully exotic tale that is an exquisite example of Murakami's surreal vision of life. It has two intertwined stories that revolve around two characters with distinctly different lives but interconnected paths. It is a complex work that is heavily layered with symbolism. Strange characters parade through a strange world as they search for companionship and meaning. This book is full of plot twists in each chapter.

In this book, you will meet with a 15-years-old boy, Kafka Tamura who runs away from his father's home and finds refuge in a private library and an old man named Nakata who ends with a job as a cat finder. 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.

This book is one of the famous Murakami books highly recommended for anyone interested in very detailed fiction with synchronistic/mystic elements.



1Q84 (Vintage International)
Author: Haruki Murakami
Published at: 22/01/2013
ISBN: 0307476464

1Q84 (Vintage International) is a fantastic novel in the magical realism genre that is undoubtedly a science fiction novel of Haruki Murakami, but it contains elements of romance and mystery in equal measure as well. It involves a fringe religious cult, a personal trainer named Aomame who hunts and assassinates men who abuse women, a mathematical genius named Tengo who writes ad copy, and the parallel worlds in which they find themselves. This novel is a highly original work of Murakami, both with respect to its content and its styling. It has explored the conflict between the rigid rules of religion and the often fluid impulses of our inner souls that can be referred to as the finest Murakami books.



Norwegian Wood
Author: Haruki Murakami
Published at: 12/09/2000
ISBN: 0375704027

Norwegian Wood is one of the most fantastical stories of Murakami that turned him into a literary superstar in Japan and is his bestselling title throughout the world. This is the most gripping Murkami novels, simply because the story takes you along in waves. It gives a glimpse of absolute happiness and then crushes it with pure sorrow. This is a story about Watanabe Toru who details his painful relationship with Naoko who kept hearing the voice of her dead lover. She felt like he was calling her to the 'other side'. Toru spends a majority of his time trying to convince Naoko to not give in to the demands of the voice but he also struggles with his feelings for the lively Midori.

This is a challenging thought-provoking novel of Haruki Marakami that successfully blends the music, the mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with a young man's hopeless and heroic first love.



Killing Commendatore: A novel
Author: Haruki Murakami
Published at: 09/10/2018
ISBN: 052552004X

Killing Commendatore is a novel that needs the reader to be familiar with Murakami's past novels and his style. It is a culmination of many of his previous novels. It includes an amazing story, the breathtaking beauty of nature, a profound multidimensional gallery of characters and incredible merge of the material world with the ideal reality. In this installment, a portrait artist separates from his wife and moves into the isolated house of an elderly artist, Tomohiko Amada, currently hospitalized with dementia. The nameless narrator decides to buckle down and rededicate himself to art. He has a rough time of it until he discovers a previously unknown painting from the famous former resident. Suddenly, life starts moving faster for the narrator - the story weaves together the parallel tales of his life, his wealthy and mysterious neighbor Menshiki, and Amada, each defined by the broken relationships in their lives. The narrator uses his art as a means of sorting out these issues and explores how Amada may have done the same. This novel is a stunning work of imagination from one of the greatest writers Haruki Murakami.



The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel
Author: Haruki Murakami
Published at: 01/09/1998
ISBN: 0679775439

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is one of Haruki Murakami’s most acclaimed and beloved novels. It is a surrealistic novel of the indistinguishable mingling of the natural and the supernatural by Japan’s leading novelist. It starts off with a deceptively simple  and well-written but weird story of a missing cat and a timid husband named Toru, Murakami goes all-in on the magical side of magical realism here, telling the story of Toru's wife, kidnapped by his brother-in-law and imprisoned in a hotel made of infinite hallways, kept there by the brother’s ability to dominate minds. Toru summons the courage to rescue his wife and battles the evil brother in a series of dreams-capes, anchored by Toru’s narration, so skillfully done it’s easy to overlook. This wonderful and fascinating work is one of those books that will have you anxiously wanting to find out more works of Haruki Murakami.



South of the Border, West of the Sun: A Novel
Author: Haruki Murakami
Published at: 14/03/2000
ISBN: 0679767398

South of the Border, West of the Sun is one of Haruki Murakami’s most touching novels. It is a bittersweet love story wrapped up in deep loneliness The main character of this story, Hajime who forms a strong bond with Shimamoto when they are both 12 years old. He loses track of her and continues his life. He continues to look for her while he develops his life. They finally have the opportunity to get together, but he would have to throw everything away to be with her. In South of the Border, West of the Sun the simple arc of one man’s life becomes the exquisite literary terrain of Murakami’s remarkable genius. The themes are powerful, and the book lands some gut-wrenching concepts, though it might be difficult to read for someone not familiar with Murakami's style.



Sputnik Sweetheart: A Novel
Author: Haruki Murakami
Published at: 09/04/2002
ISBN: 0375726055

Sputnik Sweetheart is a surreal, romantic detective story of a tangled triangle of uniquely unrequited love. This is a story of personal journeys and evolution made explicit is told by an unnamed school teacher who becomes interested in one of his students, aspiring novelist Sumire. Soon after Sumire becomes obsessed with an older married woman and jets off with her to a Greek island, the narrator receives a call telling him Sumire has disappeared. His arrival on the island and the subsequent investigation lead to many incredible sequences but few answers, ultimately suggesting that Sumire's personal journey has resulted in her literally crossing over into a new plane. This novel is undoubtedly a unique exploration of human longing and loneliness and it will take you from Japan to Europe and ultimately to an island off the coast of Greece.



Dance Dance Dance
Author: Haruki Murakami
Published at: 31/01/1995
ISBN: 0679753796

Dance Dance Dance is a follow-up story to 'A Wild Sheep Chase' that is a tense, poignant, and often hilarious ride through Murakami’s Japan, a place where everything that is not up for sale is up for grabs. It centers on the search for a character who disappears toward the end of that earlier novel, it weaves together two mysteries: one spiritual, one depressingly and grossly physical and themes of late-stage capitalism.

The plot follows the adventures of a protagonist who works as a commercial writer who is forced to return to a hotel where he once stayed with a woman he loved, though he did not know her real name. She disappears without a trace. His quest drags him through the strange, eclectic culture of modern Japan and touches of something much more mystically strange. This book is recommended for those who want to enter the Murakami's fascinating world.



What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir (Vintage International)
Author: Haruki Murakami
Published at: 11/08/2009
ISBN: 0307389839

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is an illuminating glimpse into the solitary passions of one of our greatest artists. It's a great book of Haruki Murakami on running, and on writing, and an excellent perspective on how achieving your dreams/working is just a day-by-day thing. This book is kind of a diary of one man who has done and is doing that. It has got good examples of how to talk to your body-rather, how to kick it around-and how to motivate yourself and appreciate solitude. It is a short but very poetic and worth reading for Murakami book lovers.

Enjoyable and insightful to read!



Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International)
Author: Haruki Murakami
Published at: 02/03/1993
ISBN: 0679743464

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami is a fantasy and literacy fiction novel that exists half in this world, half in another, exploring themes of consciousness and its relation to our subconscious minds. It follows two stories, told in altering chapters which are seemingly alternate universes. Eventually, the two alternating universes connect. One part is set in Tokyo sometime in the future where the narrator is a Calcutec, who works for The System. The alternate chapters feature a dream-reader who is living in a walled city surrounded by grazing unicorns. He has been separated from his shadow which is not allowed in the city. Attended to by the librarian, his job is to read dreams found in unicorn skulls in the library, but he can't help but wonder about his disconnect to his emotions and memory since he came to this town.

This is one of the best Murakami books that makes many readers fall completely in love with Murakami's work. An interesting read for anyone who likes mystery and science fiction!



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