5 Audio Books by Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer and translator. His works of fiction and non-fiction have garnered him critical acclaim, and he is the sixth recipient of the Franz Kafka Prize for his novel Kafka on the Shore. He is considered by critics an important figure in postmodern literature and The Guardian praised him as one of the “world’s greatest living novelists.”

A Wild Sheep Chase
An advertising executive, infatuated with a girl who possesses the most perfect ears (an erotic charge for him) uses a picture of a sheep with a star on its back. This catapults him into a weird adventure to find the mythical sheep up in the wilds of Hokkaido, Japan’s northern island. There are strange encounters, a hotel with an extra disappearing floor, and other oddities.

After the Quake
In 1995, the Japanese city of Kobe suffered a massive earthquake. Nearly 6,000 people died. After the Quake was the imaginative response from Japan’s leading novelist, Haruki Murakami.

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Here are animated crows, a criminal monkey, and an iceman, as well as the dreams that shape us and the things we might wish for. During a chance reunion in Italy, a romantic exile in Greece, a holiday in Hawaii, or in the grip of everyday life, Murakami’s characters confront grievous loss, sexuality, the glow of a firefly, or the impossible distances between those who ought to be the closest of all.

Kafka on the Shore
Kafka Tamura runs away from home at 15, 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. Their parallel odysseys are enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing dramas.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Toru Okada is going through a difficult time. He is without a job, his cat has disappeared, and his wife is behaving strangely. Into this unbalanced world comes a variety of curious characters, a young girl sunbathing in a nearby garden; sisters who are very peculiar indeed; an old war veteran with a violent, disturbing story. Okada retreats to a deep well in a nearby house. And the story unfolds.

The audio versions of these books are great for our busy lives and since most people have an MP3 player attached to them at all times, it’s great for you too. Plus, if you sign up for the free trial of the AudibleListener Platinum plan, you get 2 audio books for free!