《村上春树:海边的卡夫卡》为英文版：The opening pages of a Haruki Murakami novel can be like the view out an airplane window onto tarmac. But at some point between page three and fifteen——it's page thirteen in Kafka On The Shore——the deceptively placid narrative lifts off, and you find yourself breaking through clouds at a tilt, no longer certain where the plane is headed or if the laws of flight even apply. Joining the rich literature of runaways, Kafka On The Shore follows the solitary, self-disciplined schoolboy Kafka Tamura as he hops a bus from Tokyo to the randomly chosen town of Takamatsu, reminding himself at each step that he has to be "the world1s toughest fifteen-year-old." He finds a secluded private library in which to spend his days——continuing his impressive self-education——and is befriended by a transgendered clerk and the mysteriously remote head librarian, Miss Saeki, whom he fantasizes may be his long-lost mother. Meanwhile, in a second, wilder narrative spiral, an elderly Tokyo man named Nakata veers from his calm routine by murdering a stranger. An unforgettable character, beautifully delineated by Murakami, Nakata can speak with cats but cannot read or write, nor explain the forces drawing him toward Takamatsu and the other characters.

Kafka on the Shore follows the fortunes of two remarkable characters. Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his father's dark prophesy. The aging Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a bizarre childhood affliction, finds his pleasantly simplified life suddenly turned upside down. Their parallel odysseys are enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerising dramas. Cats converse with people; fish tumble from the sky; a ghostlike pimp deploys a Hegel-spouting girl of the night; a forest harbours soldiers apparently un-aged since WWII. There is a savage killing, but the identity of both victim and killer is a riddle. Murakami's novel is at once a classic quest, but it is also a bold exploration of mythic and contemporary taboos, of patricide, of mother-love, of sister-love. Above all it is an entertainment of a very high order.

村上春樹用他的文字帶著我們走上他獨特視線的異國之旅。那異國的風土人情，遠方香醇的威士卡，在他的筆下緩緩流出，流入讀者心中，沁人心脾。 村上春樹這次推出的遊記《如果我們的語言是威士卡》中，還配有他夫人陽子拍攝的彩色風景照片40幅，因為遊記中所記述的地方都是兩人共同遊歷的。這些照片使村上春樹的文字更增添了一分生動美妙的色彩。這對夫妻的搭配真可謂是“珠聯壁合”。 除了風景之外，書中還收入了一些陽子為村上春樹拍攝的照片，讓你看到村上春樹在蘇格蘭玩滾球遊戲的身姿。

「那到底意味著什麼呢？那六具白骨。」 「是你自己呀」。奇奇說。 「這是你的房間噢，在這裡的全都是你自己喲。一切的一切。」 「我的房間。」我說。 「那麼，海豚飯店呢？那裡又是怎麼回事呢？」 「那裡也是你的房間哪，當然。那邊有羊男。而這邊有我。」 「在各種地方都有我的房間。」我說。「嘿，我一直在做夢噢。海豚飯店的夢」噢。有誰在那裡為我而哭。我每天都夢見那同樣的夢。海豚飯店形狀非常細長，在那裡有誰為我而哭著。我以為那是妳。所以，我覺得無論如何都必須見妳一面。」 「大家都在為你而哭噢。」奇奇說。非常安靜，好像在撫慰神經似的聲音。因為那是為了你而存在的地方啊。在那裡大家都為你而哭噢。」 「可是妳在呼喚著我。所以我為了見妳而到海豚飯店去。而且從此以後……開始發生各種事情。跟以前一樣。遇見了各種人。各種人死去了。嘿，是妳在呼喚我的對嗎？而且是妳在引導我對嗎？」 「不對。在呼喚你的是你自己喲。我只不過是你自己的投影而已。透過我你自己在呼喚你，在引導你喲。你是以自己的影法師為舞伴在跳著舞噢。我只不過是你的影子而已。」

我花了很長時間，將久美子的事一點一點地向納姿梅格說明。說我不得不想辦法救出久美子，把她帶回這裏。她在桌上托著腮看著我的臉一會兒。 「那麼，你到底要從什麼地方把久美子救出來呢？那個地方有沒有名字呢？」我在空中尋找著適當的語言。但那種東西哪裏也沒有。空中