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Kafka on the Shore
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett, Oliver Le Sueur
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
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In a word, Brilliant
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Kafka Tamura runs away from home at 15, under the shadow of his father's dark prophesy.
The ageing Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a bizarre childhood affliction, finds his pleasantly simplified life suddenly turned upside down.
As their parallel odysseys unravel, cats converse with people, fish tumble from the sky, a ghost-like pimp deploys a Hegel-spouting girl of the night, a forest harbours soldiers apparently un-aged since World War II. There is a savage killing, but the identity of both victim and killer is a riddle - one of many which combine to create an elegant and dreamlike masterpiece.
Critic reviews
"Wonderful.... Magical and outlandish." (Daily Mail)
"Cool, fluent and addictive." (Daily Telegraph)
"Hypnotic, spellbinding." (The Times)
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What listeners say about Kafka on the Shore
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- christina s.
- 09-04-21
Very out of touch
Sexist and very naively written. Very painful to listen to all the terrible scenes of violence and rape, the performance and whispering makes it even more hard to listen to. Appropriating the greek myth of oedipus doesn’t really add anything other than some fake sense of ‘cultured’ reason/excuse for all the sexism, violence, rape and ableism.
4 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-12-20
Lived up to all the hype
This book, just wow. I can't explain it but somehow Murakami's writing always makes me notice the everyday, the little habits people have and all that comes with it. How we're all living our own separate lives that intertwine sometimes. Beautiful imagery and an unusual story weaving fantasy and reality together. There were a few questionable moments but overall it lived up to all the hype. Where was this book when I was in my 20s ❤️📖
4 people found this helpful
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- Mariana
- 19-03-21
Mesmerising story
The whole book read like a dream, it was captivating and I couldn't put it down. I only knock 1* for the unnecessary sexual details that at times made me uncomfortable to listen to.
3 people found this helpful
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- M.L
- 18-11-20
Incredible 🌠
I'm in love with this book. It was everything and more. I've felt every emotion to happiness, mesmerised, surprised, sadness,shocked , confused, amazed... so many more.
I can't wait to listen/read more of Haruki Murakami.
3 people found this helpful
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- Pal
- 26-01-21
Weird, surreal, intricate, warm, emotional.
There are just SO MANY flavours to this book that it's really hard to describe or review it. I did not like the sex bits , but the rest of it was simply stunning, to say the least. Having read it once, I'm ready to read it all over again. Missing the gentle voice of Nataka and the young, eager, confused thoughts of Kafka. All the characters are like family now, and I think I understand that human emotion and decisions cannot be simply black or white. I wish there was a sequel.
2 people found this helpful
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- Guy R
- 19-09-21
Unusual, but great.
My first from this author. Spellbinding and thought provoking. A second read is a must...
1 person found this helpful
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- Dave A
- 16-04-21
Kafka...
It’s seldom I write a review, in fact this my second one ever; and it’s seldom I listen to a book again straight off the bat - however, I’m going in again imminently. I read the book some years back and it affected me positively. The audiobook and various narrators are perfect for the story. Kafka’s own voice is beautiful and tender. The book, for me, has a thread of magic running through it... yes, there is sadness but mostly connection... a stringing together and intertwining of lives, their knock on affect, and the result thereafter. There’s philosophy, psychology and quantum physics at work in this plot; historical cover-ups, and the fall-out of this. Possibly in my top 3 of fiction, I wholeheartedly recommend Kafka on the shore.
1 person found this helpful
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- Czétényi Marcell
- 03-03-21
Somewhat it feels like a puzzle with holes
It was fluid well written. Also it was too naturalistic for me. But after I 've finished I felt plotholes. Also the ending disappointed me. And this Oedipus line wasn' t added a bit to the story.
1 person found this helpful
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- Michele Chiappa
- 04-05-22
Let down by the performer for Kafka Tamura
A great book and an enjoyable experience but for me let down by the choice of reader for the main character, Kafka. It felt as if a computer was reading the text, no expression, no inflection. The other readers are so charismatic that every time a Kafka chapter started and I heard that Siri-like voice I was just waiting for it to end. A shame really.
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- Anonymous User
- 26-04-22
Terrifying, foul, yet so beautiful
Definitely not for the faint of heart, but the brutality of this book is just a vehicle to deliver an important and valuable message, a message that is valuable if you are just entering the world or you were to die tomorrow. Amazing :,)
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- Jeanne Cooper
- 13-07-21
Best Narration
The voices and acting is so good! It captures the atmosphere and suspect the narrators made the book even more interesting. This is my first audio book, when I first click on sample, I was hooked by the memorising voice of Kafka, and used my credit immediately. I think there were parts of the books that would be a little slow without the narrators, and I feel the narrators brought the characters to life (especially for the characters Nakata and Hoshino). I don't think I would be able to finish this book reading it on my own (I have very short attention span, not easy for me to stay engaged for books that are longer than around 350 pages). So thank you Audible, and the entire cast of voices! I can 'read' long books now with your help and So glad I get to experience a literary work like Kafka on the Shore!