South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

South of the Border, West of the Sun

by Haruki Murakami

South of the Border, West of the Sun is the beguiling story of a past rekindled, and one of Haruki Murakami’s most touching novels.

Hajime has arrived at middle age with a loving family and an enviable career, yet he feels incomplete. When a childhood friend, now a beautiful woman, shows up with a secret from which she is unable to escape, the fault lines of doubt in Hajime’s quotidian existence begin to give way. Rich, mysterious, and quietly dazzling, in South of the Border, West of the Sun the simple arc of one man’s life becomes the exquisite literary terrain of Murakami’s remarkable genius.

Reviewed by Bianca on

4 of 5 stars

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Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I’m gazing at a distant star. It’s dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago. Maybe the star doesn’t even exist anymore. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything. You’re here. At least you look as if you’re here. But maybe you aren’t. Maybe it’s just your shadow. The real you may be someplace else. Or maybe you already disappeared, a long, long time ago. I reach out my hand to see, but you’ve hidden yourself behind a cloud of probablys.

What-might-have-beens may be beautiful because they are exactly just that: just what-might-have-beens.

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Reading updates

  • 22 December, 2020: Started reading
  • 22 December, 2020: on page 0 0%
  • 27 December, 2020: Finished reading
  • 27 December, 2020: Reviewed