South Of The Border, West Of The Sun - Softcover

Growing up in the suburbs in post-war Japan, it seemed to Hajime that everyone but him had brothers and sisters. His sole companion was Shimamoto, also an only child. Together they spent long afternoons listening to her father's record collection. But when his family moved away, the two lost touch. Now Hajime is in his thirties. After a decade of drifting he has found happiness with his loving wife and two daughters, and success running a jazz bar. Then Shimamoto reappears. She is beautiful, intense, enveloped in mystery. Hajime is catapulted in the past. putting at risk all he has in the present.

Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949. His works of fiction include A Wild Sheep Chase, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, The Elephant Vanishes, Dance Dance Dance, and the critically acclaimed novel, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. He has translated the work of many authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald and Raymond Carver into Japanese, and has written a non-fiction account of the Tokyo subway gas attack, Underground, which is also published by The Harvill Press.