书名：Kafka on the Shore 海边的卡夫卡
作者：Haruki Murakami村上春树
出版社名称：Vintage
出版时间：2005
语种：英文
ISBN：9780307275264
商品尺寸：10.5 x 2.7 x 17.5 cm
包装：简装
页数：489 （以实物为准）

Kafka on the Shore《海边的卡夫卡》是日本小说家村上春树的长篇小说，以村上独特风格的两条平行线展开，一条描写少年“田村卡夫卡”立志成为世界上特别坚韧的人，离开家乡踏上旅途，在一座旧图书馆遭遇一系列奇异事件，一条描写一名失忆老人在一桩离奇杀人事件以后走上逃亡之路，在汽车司机星野的帮助下恢复遥远的战争记忆。书中对日本军国主义的复活表达了忧虑，对日本的文化传统作出了反思，是作者的重要作品。
本书是全英文版，适合有一定英语基础的读者。

“An insistently metaphysical mind-bender.” — THE NEW YORKER
The opening pages of a Haruki Murakami novel can be like the view out an airplane window onto tarmac. But at some point between page three and fifteen—it’s page thirteen inKafkaonthe Shore—the deceptively placid narrative lifts off, and you find yourself breaking through clouds at a tilt, no longer certain where the plane is headed or if the laws of flight even apply. 
Joining the rich literature of runaways,Kafkaonthe Shore follows the solitary, self-disciplined schoolboy Kafka Tamura as he hops a bus from Tokyo to the randomly chosen town of Takamatsu, reminding himself at each step that he has to be “the world1s toughest fifteen-year-old.” He finds a secluded private library in which to spend his days—continuing his impressive self-education—and is befriended by a transgendered clerk and the mysteriously remote head librarian, Miss Saeki, whom he fantasizes may be his long-lost mother. Meanwhile, in a second, wilder narrative spiral, an elderly Tokyo man named Nakata veers from his calm routine by murdering a stranger. An unforgettable character, beautifully delineated by Murakami, Nakata can speak with cats but cannot read or write, nor explain the forces drawing him toward Takamatsu and the other characters. 

Review
“As powerful as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.... Reading Murakami... is a striking experience in consciousness expansion.” —The Chicago Tribune
“An insistently metaphysical mind-bender.”   —The New Yorker
“If he has not achieved that status already, Haruki Murakami is on course to becoming the most widely read Japanese writer outside Japan, past or present.” —New York Times

Kafka on the Shore《海边的卡夫卡》的主人公是一位自称名叫田村卡夫卡——作者始终未交代其真名——的少年。他在十五岁生日前夜独自离家出走，乘坐夜行长途巴士远赴四国。出走的原因是为了逃避父亲所作的比俄底浦斯王还要可怕的预言：尔将弑父，将与尔母、尔姐交合。卡夫卡四岁时，母亲突然失踪，带走了比卡夫卡年长四岁、其实是田村家养女的姐姐，不知何故却将亲生儿子抛弃。他从未见过母亲的照片，甚至连名字也不知道。仿佛是运命在冥冥之中引导，他偶然来到某私立图书馆，遂栖身于此。馆长佐伯女士是位四十多岁气质高雅的美妇，有着波澜曲折的神秘身世。卡夫卡疑心她是自己的生母，佐伯却对此不置可否。卡夫卡恋上了佐伯，并与之发生肉体关系。小说还另设一条副线，副线的主角是老人中田，他在二战期间读小学时，经历过一次神秘的昏迷事件，从此丧失了记忆，将学过的知识完全忘记，甚至不会认字计数，却获得了与猫对话的神秘能力。中田在神智失控的情况下杀死了一个自称焦尼·沃卡（Johnny Walker）、打扮得酷似那有名威士忌酒商标上所画的英国绅士的狂人，一路搭车也来到此地。
小说共分49章，奇数章基本上用写实手法讲述卡夫卡的故事，偶数章则用魔幻手法展现中田的奇遇。两种手法交互使用，编织出极富强烈虚构色彩的、奇幻诡诘的现代寓言。佐伯是将这两个故事联结为一体的结合点，而弑父的预言似乎后来也未能避免，因为狂人焦尼·沃卡居然是卡夫卡生父乔装改扮的，真正的凶手也并非中田……
Kafka on the Shore 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.
As their paths converge, and the reasons for that convergence become clear, Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder. Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world’s great storytellers at the peak of his powers. 

村上春树（1949年1月12日—），日本现代小说家，生于京都伏见区。毕业于早稻田大学文学系，三十岁登上文坛， 曾获谷崎润一郎等文学奖项，作品被翻译成多国文字，在世界各地深具影响，现任美国普林斯顿大学客座教授。代表作：《且听风吟》《挪威的森林》《1Q84》《海边的卡夫卡》《舞舞舞》等。村上春树的作品风格深受欧美作家的影响，基调轻盈，少有日本战后阴郁沉重的文字气息，被称作第1个纯正的“二战后时期作家”，并誉为日本1980年代的文学旗手。
Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949 and now lives near Tokyo. His work has been translated into more than fifty languages, and the most recent of his many international honors is the Jerusalem Prize, whose previous recipients include J. M. Coetzee, Milan Kundera, and V. S. Naipaul.

“My cell phone number,” she says with a wry expression.”I'm staying at my friend's place for a while, but if you ever feel like seeing somebody, give me a call. We can go out for a bite or whatever. Don't be a stranger, okay? 'Even chance meetings'...how does the rest of that go?”
“'Are the result of karma.'”
“Right, right,” she says. “But what does it mean?”
“That things in life are fated by our previous lives. That even in the smallest events there's no such thing as coincidence.”
She sits there on her yellow suitcase, notebook in hand, giving it some thought. “Hmm... that's a kind of philosophy, isn’t it. Not such a bad way of thinking about life. Sort of a reincarnation, New Age kind of thing. But, Kafka, remember this, okay? I don’t go around giving my cell phone number to just anybody. You know what I mean?”
I appreciate it, I tell her. I fold up the piece of paper and stick it in the pocket of my windbreaker. Thinking better of it, transfer it to my wallet.
“So how long will you be in Takamatsu?” Sakura asks.
“I don't know yet,” I say. “It depends on how things go.”
She gazes intently at me, her head tilted slightly to one side. Okay, whatever, she might be thinking. She climbs into a cab, gives a little wave, and takes off.
Once again I'm all alone. Sakura, I think——not my sister’s name. But names are changed easily enough. Especially, when you’re trying to run away from somebody.
I have a reservation at a business hotel in Takamatsu. The YMCA in Tokyo had told me about the place, and through them I got a discount on the room. But that’s only for the first three days, then it goes back to the normal room rate.
If I really wanted to save money, I could just sack out on a bench in front of the station, or since it’s still warm out, I could sleep in my sleeping hag in a park somewhere. But then the cops will come and card me——the one thing I have to avoid at all costs. That’s why I went for the hotel reservation, at least for three days. After that I’ll figure something out.