Genre: Tragic Romance, Psychological Fiction Published: 1987 Pages: 351 Tags: Death, Trauma, Bildungsroman Okay, I gave it a second chance, but I’m still skeptical. Although I enjoy reading emotional stories rooted in real-life suffering, I often struggled to grasp Murakami’s point in several places. Set in 1960s Tokyo, the story is narrated by Toru Watanabe, a 37-year-old man who is suddenly pulled into memories of his youth when he hears the Beatles' song “Norwegian Wood.” Watanabe is the kind of character who seems to attract — or be drawn toward — deeply troubled, emotionally complex people. Norwegian Wood explores a tale of love, loss, and the unsettling feeling of things left unfinished. The traumatic bond between Watanabe and Naoko, a fragile woman grieving the loss of her boyfriend Kizuki (Watanabe’s best friend), seems to be born from shared pain. Later, we’re introduced to Midori — vibrant, bold, and unpredictable. Watanabe finds himself torn between the tragic pull of h...
Genre: Time Travel Fiction Published: 2015 Pages: 232 Tags: Fiction Imagine yourself seated in a cozy cafe, with window view to your side and there's rain pouring outside, you are sipping your coffee, reading your book while listening to the soothing sounds of downpour. That is how I felt while reading "Before the Coffee Gets Cold". Funiculi Funicula is a small cafe placed in the back alley of Tokyo, run by Nagare along with his wife Kei and his cousin Kazu. while from the outside its a normal cafe serving freshly brewed coffee to its customers, it also possesses a unusual chair that can grant you a wish to travel across the divisions of time. Many have heard the urban legend, but only a handful of the customers have sat in that chair, thanks to the tedious list of rules. Naturally, the cost of bending the laws of nature comes with a heavy price: if one fails to consume the coffee before it cools, they will be stuck as a ghost forever barred from returning to either...