Sputnik Sweetheart - (Vintage International) by Haruki Murakami (Paperback)

About the Book

Combining the seductions of "Norwegian Wood" with the complex mysteries of "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, " here is Murakami at his most intriguing, mystifying, and satisfying. In an urbane Japan of jazz bars, Jack Kerouac, and the Beatles, a college student, falls in love with Summire. But her devotion to an untidy writerly life precludes any personal commitments.

Book Synopsis

Part romance, part detective story, Sputnik Sweetheart tells the story of a tangled triangle of uniquely unrequited love.

Now with a new introduction from the author.

K is madly in love with his best friend, Sumire, but her devotion to a writerly life precludes her from any personal commitments. At least, that is, until she meets an older woman to whom she finds herself irresistibly drawn. When Sumire disappears from an island off the coast of Greece, K is solicited to join the search party--and finds himself drawn back into her world and beset by ominous visions. Subtle and haunting, Sputnik Sweetheart is a profound meditation on human longing.

Review Quotes

"Grabs you from its opening lines. . . . [Murakami's] never written anything more openly emotional." --Los Angeles Magazine

"Murakami is a genius." --Chicago Tribune

"Murakami has an unmatched gift for turning psychological metaphors into uncanny narratives." -The New York Times Book Review

"An agonizing, sweet story about the power and the pain of love. . . . Immensely deepened by perfect little images that leave much to be filled in by the reader's heart or eye." -The Baltimore Sun

"[Murakami belongs] in the topmost rank of writers of international stature." -Newsday

"Murakami's true achievement lies in the humor and vision he brings to even the most despairing moments." -The New Yorker

"Perhaps better than any contemporary writer, [Murakami] captures and lays bare the raw human emotion of longing." -BookPage

"Murakami . . . has a deep interest in the alienation of self, which lifts [Sputnik Sweetheart] into both fantasy and philosophy." -San Francisco Chronicle

"Not just a great Japanese writer but a great writer, period." -Los Angeles Times Book Review

About the Author

Born in Kyoto, Japan, in 1949, Haruki Murakami grew up in Kobe and now lives near Tokyo. The most recent of his many honors is the Yomiuri Literary Prize, whose previous recipients include Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburo Oe, and Kobo Abe. His work has been translated into moer than fifty languages.