Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949 and now lives near Tokyo.
A story of love in a cool climate, intensely romantic and weepily beautiful...it is startlingly different: a true original Guardian Casablanca remade Japanese style...It is dream-like writing, laden with scenes which have the radiance of a poem The Times This wise and beautiful book is full of hidden truths New York Times This book aches...an eloquent treatise on the vertiginous, irrational powers of love and desire Independent on Sunday Impressively written and structured... Above all, the novel is memorable for its unflinchingly extreme treatment of romantic love Times Literary Supplement