Elbrich Fennema Books

Winner of the Naoki Prize, this novel captivates with its heartwarming and suspenseful narrative about resilience and survival. Following a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, a young man discovers a stray dog named Tamon outside a convenience store. The dog's tag, bearing a name linked to a guardian deity, leads the man to take Tamon in, marking the beginning of the dog's journey to reunite with his first owner. Over five years, Tamon experiences life in six different homes, ultimately returning to Hikaru, a boy rendered mute by the trauma of the tsunami. Tamon serves as a catalyst for change, impacting everyone he meets. This bestselling, award-winning tale is both intimate and expansive, blending elements of heart-wrenching emotion with uplifting moments. It powerfully illustrates how love and loyalty can triumph over adversity, showcasing the profound bond between humans and dogs. Critics praise its emotional depth, noting that it avoids sentimentality while delivering a poignant meditation on hope amid despair. The storytelling shines, offering a moving exploration of connection and the transformative power of a dog's love.

When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire - to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marches into his life and he has to choose between the future and the past. 'Evocative, entertaining, sexy and funny; but then Murakami is one of the best writers around' Time Out 'Such is the exquisite, gossamer construction of Murakami's writing that everything he chooses to describe trembles with symbolic possibility' Guardian 'This book is undeniably hip, full of student uprisings, free love, booze and 1960s pop, it's also genuinely emotionally engaging, and describes the highs of adolescence as well as the lows' Independent on Sunday 'Catches the absorption and giddy rush of adolescent love... It is also, for all the tragic momentum and the apparently kamikaze consciousness of many of its characters, often funny and quirkily observed' Times Literary Supplement 'A heart-stoppingly moving story... Murakami is, without a doubt, one of the world's finest novelists' Glasgow Herald

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. 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.

Included in this collection of stories is one in which a mirror appears out of nowhere and a night-watchman is unnerved as his reflection tries to take control of him, and another in which a couple's relationship is unbalanced after dining on exquisite crab while on holiday.