South of the Border, West of the Sun
Having read three Murakami works, I thought he was easily distinguishable from all other authors, however, his books were hard to tell apart. They all deal with pretty much the same topics and have similar sets of characters (cats included!).South of the Border, West of the Sun is no exception. It has all the Murakami ingredients, but it somehow managed to touch me on a different level.
This is about loneliness. And loneliness is, in my opinion, the disease of the 21st century. This is about feeling lonely when you are not supposed to. This is about the soul feeling detached from the many social roles one acquires in a lifetime. This is subtle, delicate and melancholic; my kind of read.
