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When a thirty-something portrait painter is abandoned by his wife, he secludes himself in the mountain home of a world famous artist. One day, the young painter hears a noise from the attic, and upon investigation, he discovers a previously unseen painting. By unearthing this hidden work of art, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances; and to close it, he must undertake a perilous journey into a netherworld that only Haruki Murakami could conjure. A tour de force of love and loneliness, war and art, Killing Commendatore is a stunning work of imagination from one of our greatest writers.
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A Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Financial Times, Library Journal, LitHub, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
Exhilarating ... magical. The Washington Post
Some novelists hold a mirror up to the world and some, like Haruki Murakami, use the mirror as a portal to a universe hidden beyond it. The Wall Street Journal
[Murakami] is as masterful as ever. Houston Chronicle
A spellbinding parable of art, history, and human loneliness. O, The Oprah Magazine
The product of a singular imagination. San Francisco Chronicle
Expansive and intricate. The New York Times
Beguiling. . . . Murakami is brilliant. The Guardian
Dazzling. . . . [Murakami] reveals how an artist sees the world. Entertainment Weekly
[A] sprawling, uncanny epic. . . . A time-traveling tale of loss, longing, and the creation of art with an ample dash of Murakami s trademark deadpan humor. Vanity Fair
A perfect balance of tradition and individual talent. . . . Murakami dancing along the inky blackness of the Path of Metaphor is like Fred Astaire dancing across a floor, then up the walls and onto the ceiling. The Spectator
A surreal, world-altering epic punctuated by art, literature and history. Time
[Murakami] once more explicates the seemingly impossible with such thorough, exacting conviction to make believers of us all. The Christian Science Monitor
No other author mixes domestic, fantastic and esoteric elements into such weirdly bewitching shades. . . . Just as [Murakami] straddles barriers dividing high art from mass entertainment, so he suspends borders between east and west. Financial Times
[Killing Commendatore] marks the return of a master. Esquire
The complex landscape that Murakami assembles in Killing Commendatore is a word portrait of the artist s inner life. The Times Literary Supplement
Fascinating. . . . Drawing on Buddhist spiritualism, metaphysics and magical realism not to mention Lewis Carroll Killing Commendatore finds its narrator enmeshed in a singular philosophic adventure. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Enthralling. Forward
Murakami beautifully captures the evanescence of inspiration. Vulture
Its size, beauty, and concerns with lust and war bring us back to the vividness and scale of [Murakami s] 1997 epic, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. The Boston Globe
Lovely and strange. Bustle
Wild, thrilling. . . . Murakami is a master storyteller and he knows how to keep us hooked. . . . What makes his voice so distinctive, and so captivating, is the mix of precise observation, clarity and deadpan humour. The Sunday Times (London)
