Philip Gabriel Knihy

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

Readers love LONELY CASTLE IN THE MIRROR:***** 'This book has become one of my favourite Japanese literature reads of all time .

'A stunning work of art that bears no comparisons' the New York Observer wrote of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 'and this is also true of this magnificent new novel, which is every bit as ambitious, expansive and bewitching. A tour-de-force of metaphysical reality, Kafka on the Shore is powered by two remarkable characters. At fifteen, Kafka Tamura runs away from home, either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister. And the aging Nakata,tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a bizarre childhood affliction, finds his highly simplified life suddenly overturned. Their parallel odysseys, as mysterious to us as they are to them, are enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Fish tumble in storms from the sky; cats and people carry on conversations; a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle. Yet this, like everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.

A mesmerising, epic, utterly involving masterpiece from Haruki Murakami The year is 1Q84. This is the real world, there is no doubt about that. But in this world, there are two moons in the sky. In this world, the fates of two people, Tengo and Aomame, are closely intertwined. They are each, in their own way, doing something very dangerous. And in this world, there seems no way to save them both. Something extraordinary is starting. *PRE-ORDER HARUKI MURAKAMI'S NEW NOVEL, THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS, NOW* '1Q84 has a range and sophistication that surpasses anything else in his oeuvre. It is his most achieved novel; an epic in which form and content are neatly aligned' Independent on Sunday

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

The epic new novel from the internationally acclaimed and best-selling author of 1Q84 In Killing Commendatore, a thirty-something portrait painter in Tokyo is abandoned by his wife and finds himself holed up in the mountain home of a famous artist, Tomohiko Amada. When he discovers a previously unseen painting in the attic, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances. To close it, he must complete a journey that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a two-foot-high physical manifestation of an Idea, a dapper businessman who lives across the valley, a precocious thirteen-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt during World War II in Vienna, a pit in the woods behind the artist's home, and an underworld haunted by Double Metaphors. A tour de force of love and loneliness, war and art--as well as a loving homage to The Great Gatsby -- Killing Commendatore is a stunning work of imagination from one of our greatest writers.

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.

Tridsaťšesťročný Cukuru Tazaki pracuje v istej tokijskej železničnej firme ako architekt staničných komplexov. Na večierku u svojho nadriadeného ho zoznámia so Sarou Kimotovou, zamestnankyňou cestovnej kancelárie. Stretnutie vyústi do vzťahu, čo spôsobí v Cukuruovom živote radikálnu zmenu. Cukuru sa Sare zdôverí so zážitkom, pre ktorý pred šestnástimi rokmi stratil dôveru v ľudí, a vďaka nej sa zbavuje nechuti komunikovať s okolím a väzenia samoty. Porozpráva jej o päťčlennej partii z gymnázia, v ktorej strávil najkrajšie roky mladosti, až kým ho z nej nečakane a definitívne nevylúčili. Saru udivuje, že Cukuru nepátral po príčine takého radikálneho skutku, hoci mu strata priateľov spôsobila veľkú traumu, a nabáda ho, aby ich navštívil a požiadal o vysvetlenie. Cukuru sa rozhodne prelomiť mlčanie a postaviť sa zoči-voči minulosti.