Listen free for 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Kafka on the Shore cover art

Kafka on the Shore

Written by: Haruki Murakami
Narrated by: Sean Barrett, Oliver Le Sueur
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $48.25

Buy Now for $48.25

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

With Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami gives us a novel every bit as ambitious and expansive as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which has been acclaimed both here and around the world for its uncommon ambition and achievement, and whose still-growing popularity suggests that it will be read and admired for decades to come.

This magnificent novel has a similarly extraordinary scope and the same capacity to amaze, entertain, and bewitch. A tour de force of metaphysical reality, it is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom. Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from the sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle - yet this, along with everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.

Extravagant in its accomplishment, Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world's truly great storytellers at the height of his powers.

©2005 Haruki Murakami (P)2013 Random House Audio

What the critics say

"As powerful as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.... Reading Murakami ... is a striking experience in consciousness expansion." ( The Chicago Tribune)
"An insistently metaphysical mind-bender." ( The New Yorker)
"If he has not achieved that status already, Haruki Murakami is on course to becoming the most widely read Japanese writer outside Japan, past or present." ( The New York Times)

What listeners say about Kafka on the Shore

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    152
  • 4 Stars
    48
  • 3 Stars
    16
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    155
  • 4 Stars
    30
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    117
  • 4 Stars
    44
  • 3 Stars
    18
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of the best books I have ever read!

This is an amazing book and an amazing narration as well. I can’t recommend this enough.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Quietly Mind-blowing

I am a huge fan of Murakami. I find all his writing intriguing but after reading Kafka on the Shore I am shocked to find it competing with the perfection of 1Q84 for number one in my heart. Unforgettable characters. Throat-grabbing stories. Mind-bending ideas that I will puzzle over in my dreams for some time to come. I will have to ask my neighbour’s cat to help me decide which one I love best.

I would highly recommend anything by Haruki Murakami and Kafka on the Shore is an excellent place to begin.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Unforgettable journey

I’ve read multiple books by Murakami, but nothing touched me more than this one. A constant tasteful mix of reality with unlimited range of theories and possibilities. The book is a metaphor, a poem about youth, search of love and tying to make sense of this world.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A warm hug… then a fever dream

It’s alllll about the journey. Stop and smell the roses - exemplified. The narrator is also amazing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Great performances, weird story lol

I’ve only ever read Norwegian Wood by Murakami so the content of this story really threw me off. The Oedipal subplot was a little icky to me, as was the portrayal of female characters in general (a complaint Murakami gets quite often - they are one-dimensional and exist only as plot devices or to gratify the male characters). Yet something about it was pretty enjoyable and engaging and I got through the listen rather quickly. The narrative changes every chapter between two characters, and I quite liked the old man’s story!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

boring! but managed to read till the end!

After reading reviews, I was expecting something like 1Q84.. but this book was not. It was quite boring... not to the point to return it.. I still managed to finish. There were many wisdom points too. And it helped me fall asleep. I ended up treating this book as a meditation. It worked well for this purpose. Murakami's book about him running marathones was even more entertaining than this one. I accept that not every book has to entertain... This one was more like a piece of music or a painting... In short, if you are looking for any kind of a plot, there is none! If you like random images of colour and feeling, this might be your type. This is definitely a piece of art, and not everyone can understand or enjoy this kind of art

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

An Eye Opening Story!!!!

the story itself was easy to understand and comprehend and the underlying meaning of it,
this is my first Haruki Murakami book to finished and recommended by my friend, and i would absolutely recommend this to anyone who are starting to read books or listen to it, i mean the world building and character itself was a good piece to get someone to hook into reading.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

So Weird, SO GOOD!!

This is the second book I've read by this author, and wow - such an incredible, weird, intriguing, compelling, and thoughtful story. This is an absolute must-read, I will be recommending to everyone I know. The narration is superb, the two narrators have very distinct voices that lend perfectly to the tone of their respective characters. I don't want to say too much about it as to keep the story for you to discover on your own, but this is one of my top 5 audio books of all time. Give yourself the gift of discovering this story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Well Written and Well Performed

If you are looking for something unique, deep and entertaining, this is the book for you.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Truly Remarkable

I have always loved Murakami's work so this could be a bias review but the performance of this book by the narrators is, alone, worth the listen. very powerful.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!