Killing Commendatore

We all live our lives carrying secrets we cannot disclose.

'Beguiling... Murakami is brilliant at folding the humdrum alongside the supernatural; finding the magic that's nested in life's quotidian details' Guardian

When a thirty-something portrait painter is abandoned by his wife, he holes up in the mountain home of a famous artist. The days drift by, spent painting, listening to music and drinking whiskey in the evenings. But then he discovers a strange painting in the attic and unintentionally begins a strange journey of self-discovery that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a precocious thirteen-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt and a haunted underworld.

A stunning work of imagination, Killing Commendatore is a surreal tale of love and loneliness, war and art.

Review: It's safe to say that there's no one like Murakami * Literary Review *
Murakami's reality has many sides; some plain, some fancy. Translators Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen capture every colour on this mind-altering palette. No other author mixes domestic, fantastic and esoteric elements into such weirdly bewitching shades. Murakami's "Land of Metaphor" remains a country where wonders never cease -- Boyd Tonkin * Financial Times *
Wild, thrilling. . . Murakami is a master storyteller and he knows how to keep us hooked * Sunday Times *
Expansive and intricate . . . touches on many of the themes familiar in Mr. Murakami's novels: the mystery of romantic love, the weight of history, the transcendence of art, the search for elusive things just outside our grasp * New York Times *
I found it totally gripping with scarcely a dull page, the loose ends enhancing its mystery. An absorbing work by a great writer * Daily Express *
An immersive big-hearted new novel * Independent *
Written in a simple, readable style that leaves you free to concentrate on the weirdness of the content... There is no other writer able to give us the fix that his unique qualities provide * Sunday Express *
In this novel, [Murakami] captures the creative process compellingly... The complex landscape that Murakami assembles in Killing Commendatore is a word portrait of the artist's inner life * Times Literary Supplement *
Murakami keeps the reader gripped * The Week *
Rich, sprawling... Killing Commendatore is a... powerful, sustained meditation on how we engage with works of art * Daily Telegraph *

Prizes: Winner of The Kitschies Inky Tentacle 2019 (UK).