South of the Border, West of the Sun

Nov 14, 2025 5:42 PM

Author:Haruki Murakami

A moving, thoughtful story of long-lost love and second chances

Growing up in the suburbs in post-war Japan, it seemed to Hajime that everyone but him had brothers and sisters. His sole companion was Shimamoto, also an only child. Together they spent long afternoons listening to her father's record collection. But when his family moved away, the two lost touch.

Now Hajime is in his thirties. After a decade of drifting, he has found happiness with his loving wife and two daughters, and success running a jazz bar. Then Shimamoto reappears. She is beautiful, intense, enveloped in mystery. Hajime is catapulted into the past, putting at risk all he has in the present.

'Casablanca remade Japanese style...It is dream-like writing, laden with scenes which have the radiance of a poem' The Times

Reviews

A story of love in a cool climate, intensely romantic and weepily beautiful...it is startlingly different: a true original

—— Guardian

Casablanca remade Japanese style...It is dream-like writing, laden with scenes which have the radiance of a poem

—— The Times

This wise and beautiful book is full of hidden truths

—— New York Times

This book aches...an eloquent treatise on the vertiginous, irrational powers of love and desire

—— Independent on Sunday

Impressively written and structured... Above all, the novel is memorable for its unflinchingly extreme treatment of romantic love

—— Times Literary Supplement

Discover what a fine writer Murakami is with this engrossing examination of a male mid-life crisis... He enthrallingly teases out the risks, culminating in a headily sensual finale

—— Time Out

A beautiful, atmospheric novel sustained by Murakami's flair for philosophical mediation at its most human

—— Irish Times

A wise and beautiful book.

—— The New York Times Book Review

A probing meditation on human fragility, the grip of obsession, and the impenetrable, erotically charged enigma that is the other.

—— The New York Times

Brilliant. . . . A mesmerizing new example of Murakami's deeply original fiction.

—— The Baltimore Sun

Lovely, deceptively simple. . . . A novel of existential romance.

—— San Francisco Chronicle

His most deeply moving novel.

—— The Boston Globe

Mesmerizing. . . . This is a harrowing, a disturbing, a hauntingly brilliant tale.

—— The Baltimore Sun

A fine, almost delicate book about what is unfathomable about us.

—— The Philadelphia Inquirer

Portrayed in a fluid language that veers from the vernacular . . . to the surprisingly poetic.

—— San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

Previous Article：Literature and Evil Next Article：Anonymous Lawyer

Comments

Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.