tokio blues

A triangular love story that becomes a tale of sentimental education but also of the losses that all maturation entails.

Toru Watanabe, a 37-year-old executive, casually hears an old Beatles song as he lands at a European airport, and the music takes him back to his youth, to the turbulent Tokyo of the late sixties. Toru remembers, with a mix of melancholy and unease, the unstable and mysterious Naoko, the girlfriend of his best –and only– childhood friend, Kizuki. Kizuki's suicide distances them for a year until they meet again at university. They begin an intimate relationship there; however, Naoko's fragile mental health deteriorates and she is admitted to a sanatorium. Soon after, Toru falls in love with Midori, an active and determined young woman. Indecisive, plunged into doubts and fears, he experiences enchantment and disillusionment where everything seems to make sense: sex, love, and death. The situation, for him, for all three, has become untenable; none seem capable of achieving the delicate balance between youthful hopes and the need to find a place in the world.
With a keen sense of humor, Murakami has written the moving story of a sentimental education, but also of the losses that all maturation entails. Norwegian Wood marked the definitive recognition of the author in his country, where it became a bestseller.

A triangular love story that becomes a tale of sentimental education but also of the losses that all maturation entails.

Toru Watanabe, a 37-year-old executive, casually hears an old Beatles song as he lands at a European airport, and the music takes him back to his youth, to the turbulent Tokyo of the late sixties. Toru remembers, with a mix of melancholy and unease, the unstable and mysterious Naoko, the girlfriend of his best –and only– childhood friend, Kizuki. Kizuki's suicide distances them for a year until they meet again at university. They begin an intimate relationship there; however, Naoko's fragile mental health deteriorates and she is admitted to a sanatorium. Soon after, Toru falls in love with Midori, an active and determined young woman. Indecisive, plunged into doubts and fears, he experiences enchantment and disillusionment where everything seems to make sense: sex, love, and death. The situation, for him, for all three, has become untenable; none seem capable of achieving the delicate balance between youthful hopes and the need to find a place in the world.
With a keen sense of humor, Murakami has written the moving story of a sentimental education, but also of the losses that all maturation entails. Norwegian Wood marked the definitive recognition of the author in his country, where it became a bestseller.