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 *

Exhilarating. . . . Only in the calm madness of his magical realism can Murakami truly capture one of his obsessions, the usually ineffable yearning that drives a person to make art * Washington Post *

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 *

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