Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Zusatztext 68022618 Informationen zum Autor HARUKI MURAKAMI was born in Kyoto in 1949 and now lives near Tokyo. His work has been translated into more than fifty languages, and one of the most recent of his many international honors is the Cino Del Duca World Prize, whose previous recipients include Jorge Luis Borges, Ismail Kadare, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Joyce Carol Oates. Klappentext An instant #1 New York Times Bestseller, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is the remarkable story of a young man haunted by a great loss; of dreams and nightmares that have unintended consequences for the world around us; and of a journey into the past that is necessary to mend the present. Here Haruki Murakami-one of the most revered voices in literature today-gives us a story of love, friend­ship, and heartbreak for the ages.A New York Times and Washington Post notable book, and one of the Financial Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Slate, Mother Jones, The Daily Beast, and BookPage's best books of the year Leseprobe From July of his sophomore year in college until the following January, all Tsukuru Tazaki could think about was dying. He turned twenty during this time, but this special watershed—becoming an adult—meant nothing. Taking his own life seemed the most natural solution, and even now he couldn’t say why he hadn’t taken this final step. Crossing that threshold between life and death would have been easier than swallowing down a slick, raw egg. Perhaps he didn’t commit suicide then because he couldn’t conceive of a method that fit the pure and intense feelings he had toward death. But method was beside the point. If there had been a door within reach that led straight to death, he wouldn’t have hesitated to push it open, without a second thought, as if it were just a part of ordinary life. For better or for worse, though, there was no such door nearby.   I really should have died then, Tsukuru often told himself. Then this world, the one in the here and now, wouldn’t exist. It was a captivating, bewitching thought. The present world wouldn’t exist, and reality would no longer be real. As far as this world was concerned, he would simply no longer exist—just as this world would no longer exist for him. At the same time, Tsukuru couldn’t fathom why he had reached this point, where he was teetering over the precipice. There was an actual event that had led him to this place—this he knew all too well—but why should death have such a hold over him, enveloping him in its embrace for nearly half a year? Envelop—the word expressed it precisely. Like Jonah in the belly of the whale, Tsukuru had fallen into the bowels of death, one untold day after another, lost in a dark, stagnant void. It was as if he were sleepwalking through life, as if he had already died but not yet noticed it. When the sun rose, so would Tsukuru—he’d brush his teeth, throw on whatever clothes were at hand, ride the train to college, and take notes in class. Like a person in a storm desperately grasping at a lamppost, he clung to this daily routine. He only spoke to people when necessary, and after school, he would return to his solitary apartment, sit on the floor, lean back against the wall, and ponder death and the failures of his life. Before him lay a huge, dark abyss that ran straight through to the earth’s core. All he could see was a thick cloud of nothingness swirling around him; all he could hear was a profound silence squeezing his eardrums. When he wasn’t thinking about death, his mind was blank. It wasn’t hard to keep from thinking. He didn’t read any newspapers, didn’t listen to music, and had no sexual desire to speak of. Events occurring in the outside world were, to him, inconsequential. When he grew tired of his room, he wandered aimlessly around the neighborhood or went to the station, where he sat on a bench and watched the trains arriving ...

Report

A New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book
One of the Financial Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Slate, Mother Jones, The Daily Beast, and BookPage's Best Books of the Year

Mesmerizing, immersive, hallucinogenic. Entertainment Weekly

Readers wait for [Murakami s] work the way past generations lined up at record stores for new albums by the Beatles or Bob Dylan.... Reveals another side of Murakami, one not so easy to pin down.... A book for both the new and experienced reader. Patti Smith, The New York Times Book Review 

Hypnotic. The Boston Globe
 
Brilliant. The Miami Herald

A masterpiece. Elle

Wistful, mysterious, winsome, disturbing, seductive. The Atlantic

Remarkable. The Washington Post
 
  Intoxicating.... Full of beauty, strangeness, and color. NPR

[Murakami] is ever alert to minds and hearts, to what it is, precisely, that they feel and see, and to humanity s abiding and indomitable spirit.... A deeply affecting novel, not only for the dark nooks and crannies it explores, but for the magic that seeps into its characters subconsciouses, for the lengths to which they will go to protect or damage one another, for the brilliant characterizations it delivers along the way. The Washington Post

More than just a story but rather a meditation.... There is a rawness, a vulnerability, to these characters. Los Angeles Times
 
Tsukuru s pilgrimage will never end, because he is moving constantly away from his destination, which is his old self. This is a narrow poignancy, but a powerful one, and Murakami is its master. Perhaps that's why he has come to speak not just for his thwarted nation, but for so many of us who love art since it's only there, alas, in novels such as this one, that we're allowed to live twice. Chicago Tribune
 
Bold and colorful threads of fiction blur smoothly together to form the muted white of an almost ordinary realism. Like J.M. Coetzee, Murakami smoothly interlaces allegorical meanings with everyday particulars of contemporary social reality.... Tsukuru s situation will resonate with anyone who feels adrift in this age of Google and Facebook. San Francisco Chronicle
 
Colorless Tsukuru spins a weave of ... vivid images around a great mystery.... The story flows along smoothly, wrapping around details like objects in a stream. The Boston Globe
 
  The premise is simple enough, but in the works of Murakami, nothing is simple.... A perfect introduction to Murakami s world, where questions of guilt and motivation abound, and the future is an open question. The Miami Herald
 
Beautiful, rich with moving images and lush yet exquisitely controlled language.... Fans of elegant, intelligent fiction will welcome this book. Tampa Bay Times
 
Moving.... One of Murakami s most endearing and enduring traits as a writer is an almost reportorial attention to detail, the combined effect of which gives you a complete picture while still feeling a little ethereal. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Shockingly seductive.... Murakami has a knack for swift, seamless storytelling.... Don t be surprised if you devour Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage in the course of a night or two.... Charming and unexpected. Richmond Times-Dispatch
 
Satisfying.... Murakami can find mystery in the mundane and conjure it in sparse, Raymond Carveresque prose. Financial Times
 
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki alights in some mysterious places but doesn t settle there.... [It] is replete with emotionally frank, philosophical discussions.... Reflective. The Dallas Morning News
 
A piercing and surprisingly compact story about friendship and loneliness.... Murakami skillfully explores the depths of Tsukuru s isolation and pain. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
 
Truly captivating ... Calling Murakami a universally respected author or even a paragon of literature is no longer apt. The man is a cultural force unto himself.... [In Colorless Tsukuru] the staples of his work ... all come together to form a beautiful whole. A.V. Club
 
Spare and contained.... Quiet, with disturbing depths. The Columbus Dispatch
 
A testament to the mystery, magic, and mastery of this much-revered Japanese writer s imaginative powers. Murakami s moxie is characterized by a brilliant detective-story-like blend of intuition, hard-nosed logic, impeccable pacing, and poetic revelations. Elle

Product details

• Authors: Philip Gabriel, Ted Goossen, Hakuri Murakami, Haruki Murakami, Haruki/ Gabriel Murakami
• Assisted by: Philip Gabriel (Translation)
• Publisher: Vintage USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 31.05.2015
• EAN: 9780804170123
• ISBN: 978-0-8041-7012-3
• No. of pages: 400
• Dimensions: 132 mm x 203 mm x 18 mm
• Series: Vintage International; Vintage International
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Japanische SchriftstellerInnen; Werke (div.)