Antonietta Pastore Books

Enter the surreal and enchanting world of Haruki Murakami. Toru Okada's cat has disappeared. His wife is growing more distant every day. Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has recently been receiving. As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague and blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and opera and drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out. He embarks on a bizarre journey, guided by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell. 'Mesmerising, surreal, this really is the work of a true original' The Times VINTAGE JAPANESE CLASSICS series - five masterpieces of Japanese fiction in gorgeous new gift editions.

His life was like his recurring nightmare: a train to nowhere. But an ordinary life has a way of taking an extraordinary turn. Add a girl whose ears are so exquisite that, when uncovered, they improve sex a thousand-fold, a runaway friend, a rightwing politico, an ovine-obsessed professor and a manic depressive in a sheep outfit, implicate them in a hunt for a sheep. that may or may not be running the world, and the upshot is another singular masterpiece from Japan's finest novelist.

An intimate look at writing, running, and the incredible way they intersect, from the incomparable, bestselling author Haruki Murakami. While simply training for the New York City Marathon would be enough for most people, Haruki Murakami decided to write about it as well. The result is a beautiful memoir about his intertwined obsessions with running and writing, full of vivid memories and insights, including the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer. By turns funny and sobering, playful and phulosophical, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is rich and revelatory, both for fans of this masterful yet guardedly private writer and for the exploding population of athletes who find similar satisfaction in athletic pursuit.

Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all. Marked by the same wry humor that has defined his…

The story follows a young man determined to uncover the truth behind his girlfriend's mysterious disappearance. His quest takes him to a remote library filled with its own enigmas, where he believes he might find clues about the imaginary city that holds her true essence. As he delves deeper into the library's secrets, he navigates a journey of discovery and self-realization, blending themes of love, loss, and the quest for identity.

"A nonchalant string of anecdotes and wisecracks, told by a fellow who doesn't have a name, and has never caught a mouse, and isn't much good for anything except watching human beings in action…" —The New Yorker Written from 1904 through 1906, Soseki Natsume's comic masterpiece, I Am a Cat, satirizes the foolishness of upper-middle-class Japanese society during the Meiji era. With acerbic wit and sardonic perspective, it follows the whimsical adventures of a world-weary stray kitten who comments on the follies and foibles of the people around him. A classic of Japanese literature, I Am a Cat is one of Soseki's best-known novels. Considered by many as the most significant writer in modern Japanese history, Soseki's I Am a Cat is a classic novel sure to be enjoyed for years to come.

An intimate conversation about music and creativity, between the internationally bestselling writer and a world-class conductor. 'My only purpose in this book was for me, as a music lover, to have a discussion of music with the musician Seiji Ozawa that was as open and honest as possible. I simply wanted to bring out the ways that each of us (though on vastly different levels) is dedicated to music.' Haruki Murakami's passion for music runs deep. Before turning his hand to writing, he ran a jazz club in Tokyo, and the aesthetic and emotional power of music permeates every one of his much-loved books. Now, in Absolutely on Music, Murakami fulfills a personal dream, sitting down with his friend, acclaimed conductor Seiji Ozawa, to talk about their shared interest. Transcribed from lengthy conversations about the nature of music and writing, here they discuss everything from Brahms to Beethoven, from Leonard Bernstein to Glenn Gould, from record collecting to pop-up orchestras, and much more. Ultimately this book gives readers an unprecedented glimpse into the minds of two maestros.

In a fantastical illustrated short novel, three people imprisoned in a nightmarish library plot their escape.

NATIONAL BEST SELLER • A mind-bending new collection of short stories from the internationally acclaimed, best-selling author. • “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 The eight stories in this new book are all told in the first person by a classic Murakami narrator. From memories of youth, meditations on music, and an ardent love of baseball, to dreamlike scenarios and invented jazz albums, together these stories challenge the boundaries between our minds and the exterior world. Occasionally, a narrator may or may not be Murakami himself. Is it memoir or fiction? The reader decides. Philosophical and mysterious, the stories in First Person Singular all touch beautifully on love and solitude, childhood and memory. . . all with a signature Murakami twist.

Asako è una studentessa di 17 anni silenziosa e assorta. Un giorno Asako decide di cambiare vita, si fa da parte, esce di scena: abbandona la scuola e si nasconde in casa senza che la madre se ne accorga. Liberata la sua stanza da tutti gli oggetti, gettati i vestiti, i giochi, il computer, Asako si accinge a sparire, quando incontra un bambino di dieci anni che cambierà la sua esistenza. Grazie a quel computer prima abbandonato, poi recuperato, i due si immergono nel mondo impersonale delle chat-line, e avviano una rete di incontri erotici che è al tempo stesso un vero e proprio lavoro e un teatro delle ombre, in cui annullare la propria identità e scoprirsi diversi.

Diciassette racconti narrano un bizzarro universo di situazioni al limite della normalità, i cui protagonisti, diversi di carattere ma simili per attitudini e sensibilità, hanno tutti un identico codice, l'accettazione del disordine, e una stessa manchevolezza, la fragilità della ragione. A casa, nei loro interni urbanizzati, dove accanto al televisore sempre acceso si stipano i cd di Mozart e le polo di Ralph Laurent, costoro si muovono come pesci in un acquario con la stessa impassibile maniacalità di dislocazione, come scossi, spaventati da questioni troppo grandi: la morte, la vita, il coraggio, l'amore.