It's always exciting when a new Murakami appears in English. He casts a kind of spell over the reader like no one else, and you believe in everything that happens to the slightly hapless, indecisive characters in his books, however strange. This one is no different. Tsukuru Tazaki, now 36 and single, has been drifting through his life in Tokyo since his four school friends cut him off without explanation 16 years before. But then he meets Sara, and she encourages him to seek answers, so he finally tries to find out what happened and why. As usual, there are many seemingly irrelevant digressions along the way, and meditations on such things as railway station design. These are all beautifully told and add to the puzzle. And then, as always, the book ends too soon, with some of the mysteries resolved, but far from all of them. He's a great storyteller. I'll be buying his next book when it appears.