Where to Start Reading Haruki Murakami

Known for his intricate worlds, complex characterization and wild imagination, Haruki Murakami has written epic feats of mythology and adventure and explored the intricacies of human nature. In celebration of his newest and most personal work, Abandoning a Cat, we’re looking back on a few of our favorite stories that established him as an unstoppable force in the literary world.

Notes From Your Bookseller

With a cat serving as a quiet thread through the narrative, Haruki Murakami returns with a beautifully rendered meditation on his relationship with his father and Japan during and after WWII.

Notes From Your Bookseller

The tender coming-of-age novel that launched Murakami’s career, this story of grief, youth and new beginnings follows an introverted young man in 1960s Tokyo diving headfirst into first love and finding himself in the process.

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A runaway teenager and an old man with curious abilities make an unlikely paring in this sweeping, surreal epic containing wild spirits, talking cats and free-falling fish.

Notes From Your Bookseller

When a young woman notices strange discrepancies in her reality, she discovers she has entered a fantastical parallel world called 1Q84. Two complicated and seemingly unconnected lives are drawn together in this dream-like, genre-busting novel with a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s.

Notes From Your Bookseller

Across two parallel narratives, Murakami crafts a surreal universe that combines science fiction, western pop culture and philosophy. Wild, weird and compelling, the mystical and the mundane converge in this profound novel.

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While he’s known for his dreamlike narratives, one of Murakami’s great strengths is his characterization. The longing is palpable as this tangled love triangle navigates unrequited love and loss.

Notes From Your Bookseller

Dive deeper into Murakami’s inner psyche with this memoir that intertwines his obsessions with running and writing as he trained for the New York City Marathon. Equally witty and reflective, this book is perfect for the experienced athlete or anyone seeking musings on human nature.

Notes From Your Bookseller

When his true love mysteriously vanishes, a young man embarks on an odyssean quest from the real world to the otherworld to find her, encountering roaming unicorns and a dream library. This beautiful ode to books and reading is a love letter to the strange world we live in.

"Truth is not found in fixed stillness, but in ceaseless change/movement. Isn't this the quintessential core of what stories are all about?” —Haruki Murakami, from the afterword