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Book Summary and Reviews of Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Norwegian Wood

by Haruki Murakami

  • Published:
  • Sep 2000, 298 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

From the bestselling author of Kafka on the Shore: A magnificent coming-of-age story steeped in nostalgia, "a masterly novel" (The New York Times Book Review) blending the music, the mood, and the ethos that were the sixties with a young man's hopeless and heroic first love.

Toru, a serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. As Naoko retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.

Stunning and elegiac, Norwegian Wood first propelled Haruki Murakami into the forefront of the literary scene.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"A masterly novel.... Norwegian Wood bears the unmistakable marks of Murakami's hand." —The New York Times Book Review

"Norwegian Wood...not only points to but manifests the author's genius." —Chicago Tribune

"[A] treat...Murakami captures the heartbeat of his generation and draws the reader in so completely you mourn when the story is done." —The Baltimore Sun

"Vintage Murakami [and] easily the most erotic of [his] novels." —Los Angeles Times Book Review

This information about Norwegian Wood was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the World Fantasy Award, the Tanizaki Prize, Yomiuri Prize for Literature, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Noma Literary Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Kiriyama Prize for Fiction, the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize, and the Princess of Asturias Awards.

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