Books 2014: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage

This is actually my first Murakami book. His books have always been praised in my circles, but somehow I've never set out to read one of them until now. I'm quite sure it won't be my last. As I don't understand Japanese, I've read the English translation, so my view of the book is based on this version. Written in a cool and distanced language I'm amazed on how strongly I was drawn into the story. The story itself centres around Tsukuru, who having enjoyed a happy life with his friends, suddenly is cut off from them, being told they want nothing to do with him. This has an enormous effect on his life, but he struggles through it and life goes by, without him trying to find out what happened back then. Then, one day, he meets a girl, who asks him to confront his past, and he does. And this is why I could hardly put the book down. As a reader you want to find out, perhaps even more than Tsukuru himself, what really had happened that made his friends reject him.A fascinating narrative technique:)

Murakami, Haruki (2014). Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage. London: Harvill Secker. Kindle edition.
Translated by Philip Gabriel.