Murakami Haruki is an important figure in contemporary Japanese letters for his extensive translations from American fiction, and the enormous popularity of his own fiction has drawn attention to his work as a translator. His translation work has also de...

KAFKA ON THE SHORE By Haruki Murakami Knopf, 436 pp. $25-95 WIND-DOWN BIRD New signals from Planet Murakami: Cat communication, fishy rain, and some moralizing Reading Haruki Murakami is like falling into something, a slumber, it may be, or a rabbit...

Haruki Murakami. Kafka on the Shore. Trans. Philip Gabriel. Knopf, 2005. 436 pp. $25.95. In Amerika Franz Kafka, who never saw the sea, located Oklahoma on the shore of the Pacific. Haruki Murakami locates Kafka in his Pacific Rim homeland, Japan. But...

Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami, translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel. Alfred A. Knopf, 436 pages, $25.95.This is the way these things happen, don't ask why. Nakata has a mind that works simply, even if he's not exactly a simpleton. He forgets...

Back when summer actually meant a few months of relaxing and down time to New Yorkers, one of the most treasured rituals was the weekly trip to the neighborhood bookstore, to choose a new book (or stack of books) to keep one company at the...