Kafka on the Shore is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from one-either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister-and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliciton and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that he cannot fathom. As their paths converge, Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall fromt he sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder. Kafka ont he Shore displays one of the world's great storytellers at the peak of his powers.