Philip Gabriel Knihy

Vol. 2: book three translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel

How can you save your friend's life if she doesn't want to be rescued? In a tranquil neighbourhood of Tokyo, seven teenagers wake to find their bedroom mirrors are shining. At a single touch, they are pulled from their lonely lives to a wondrous castle filled with winding stairways, watchful portraits and twinkling chandeliers. In this new sanctuary, they are confronted with a set of clues leading to a hidden room where one of them will be granted a wish. But there's a catch: if they don't leave the castle by five o'clock, they will be punished. As time passes, a devastating truth emerges: only those brave enough to share their stories will be saved.

" ... A novel of metaphysical reality, it is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom."--Publisher's description

She agrees, but as a result of her actions starts to feel increasingly detached from the real world. As they begin to decipher more about the strange world into which they have slipped, so they sense their destinies converging.

Growing up in the suburbs in post-war Japan, it seemed to Hajime that everyone but him had brothers and sisters. His sole companion was Shimamoto, also an only child. Together they spent long afternoons listening to her father's record collection. But when his family moved away, the two lost touch. Now Hajime is in his thirties. After a decade of drifting he has found happiness with his loving wife and two daughters, and success running a jazz bar. Then Shimamoto reappears. She is beautiful, intense, enveloped in mystery. Hajime is catapulted into the past, putting at risk all he has in the present. 'A story of love in a cool climate, intensely romantic and weepily beautiful...it is startlingly different: a true original' Guardian 'Casablanca remade Japanese style...It is dream-like writing, laden with scenes which have the radiance of a poem' The Times 'This wise and beautiful book is full of hidden truths' New York Times 'This book aches...an eloquent treatise on the vertiginous, irrational powers of love and desire' Independent on Sunday 'A beautiful, atmospheric novel sustained by Murakami's flair for philosophical mediation at its most human' Irish Times

We all live our lives carrying secrets we cannot disclose. 'Beguiling... Murakami is brilliant at folding the humdrum alongside the supernatural; finding the magic that's nested in life's quotidian details' Guardian When a thirty-something portrait painter is abandoned by his wife, he holes up in the mountain home of a famous artist. The days drift by, spent painting, listening to music and drinking whiskey in the evenings. But then he discovers a strange painting in the attic and unintentionally begins a strange journey of self-discovery that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a precocious thirteen-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt and a haunted underworld. A stunning work of imagination, Killing Commendatore is a surreal tale of love and loneliness, war and art.

Part romance, part detective story, Sputnik Sweetheart tells the story of a tangled triangle of uniquely unrequited love. Now with a new introduction from the author. K is madly in love with his best friend, Sumire, but her devotion to a writerly life precludes her from any personal commitments. At least, that is, until she meets an older woman to whom she finds herself irresistibly drawn. When Sumire disappears from an island off the coast of Greece, K is solicited to join the search party—and finds himself drawn back into her world and beset by ominous visions. Subtle and haunting, Sputnik Sweetheart is a profound meditation on human longing.

Dvadsaťštyri majstrovských poviedok z rokov 1979 až 2006 sú mimoriadne skvelou ukážkou autorovho strhujúceho rukopisu a podmanivosti jeho krátkych próz. V príbehoch, ktoré sa odohrávajú v Japonsku, Taliansku, Grécku či na Havaji, opäť provokuje fascinujúcim a nekompromisným stieraním hranice medzi možným a nemožným, presvedčivo zachováva rovnováhu medzi oboma týmito svetmi, plynulo prechádza zo sveta každodennosti do sveta snov, a práve v tom balansovaní na hrane nemilosrdne odhaľ uje temné aj krehké stránky nás všetkých a zraniteľnosť našej duše.

Táto kniha je nezvyčajným súborom esejí o behaní na dlhé trate a zároveň spisovateľovým denníkom každodennej štvormesačnej prípravy na Newyorský maratón. Haruki Murakami behá už dvadsaťpäť rokov, každý deň desať kilometrov. Hovorí tu o fyzickej i psychickej bolesti, o starnutí, aj o tom, na čo myslí, keď behá a púšťa si pritom hudbu. Dnešný svet praje najmä silným osobnostiam a aj v literárnom svete sa uchytia cieľavedomí spisovatelia-manažéri v dobrej kondícii, a taký je aj Murakami.

A young woman is brutally murdered on a remote mountain road. A young construction worker, Yuichi, is on the run - but is he guilty? This is the dark heart of Japan; a world of seedy sex hotels and decaying seaside towns; a world of loneliness, violence and desperation. As the police close in on Yuichi and his new lover, the stories of the victim, the murderer and their families are uncovered. But these men and women are never what they appear to be...