From Powells.com
Hot new releases and under-the-radar gems for adults and kids.
Our favorite books of the year.
Staff Pick
Killing Commendatore is a Gatsby-esque novel that meditates on art, death, the spirit world, fate, and free will. I loved the experience of slowly losing myself to the surreal, magical world of Murakami’s imagination. This novel may have finally pushed me into the camp of devoted Harukists. Recommended By Mary S., Powells.com
Haruki Murakami's first novel in four years is a triumph. Describing too much of the plot would spoil some of the trademark Murakami mystery, but it involves a lonely artist, a brilliant teenager, and an underworld that is surreal even for this author. Fascinating, puzzling, and ultimately utterly satisfying. Recommended By Moses M., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
The epic new novel from the internationally acclaimed and best-selling author of 1Q84
In Killing Commendatore, a thirty-something portrait painter in Tokyo is abandoned by his wife and finds himself holed up in the mountain home of a famous artist, Tomohiko Amada. When he discovers a previously unseen painting in the attic, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances. To close it, he must complete a journey that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a two-foot-high physical manifestation of an Idea, a dapper businessman who lives across the valley, a precocious thirteen-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt during World War II in Vienna, a pit in the woods behind the artist’s home, and an underworld haunted by Double Metaphors. A tour de force of love and loneliness, war and art — as well as a loving homage to The Great Gatsby — Killing Commendatore is a stunning work of imagination from one of our greatest writers.
Review
“A meticulous yet gripping novel whose escalating surreal tone complements the author’s tight focus on the domestic and the mundane....Consistently rewarding.” Publishers Weekly
Review
“[Killing Commendatore] marks the return of a master.” Esquire
Review
“More of Murakami’s magical mist, but its size, beauty, and concerns with lust and war bring us back to the vividness and scale of his 1997 epic, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.’’ The Boston Globe
Review
“No ordinary trip; get ready for a wild ride.” Entertainment Weekly
Review
“Again and again, the author of 1Q84 has delivered vast, complicated and engrossing narratives that bind together in unpredictable ways that are absolutely worth the wait. True to form, his latest comes in at just over 700 pages. The story of a painter’s discovery of a lost work of art builds to a superb puzzle of monumental philosophical and emotional depth.” BookPage
About the Author
HARUKI MURAKAMI was born in Kyoto in 1949 and now lives near Tokyo. His work has been translated into more than fifty languages, and the most recent of his many international honors is the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award, whose previous recipients include J. K. Rowling, Isabel Allende, and Salman Rushdie.