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Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his father''s dark prophesy.

The aging 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.

''Wonderful... Magical and outlandish'' Daily Mail

''Hypnotic, spellbinding'' The Times

''Cool, fluent and addictive'' Daily Telegraph

© Haruki Marakami 2005 (P) Penguin Audio 2020