First Person Singular

The eight masterful stories in this new collection are all
told in the first person by a classic Murakami narrator: a
lonely man. Some of them (like With the Beatles Cream and
On a Stone Pillow ) are nostalgic looks back at youth.
Others are set in adulthood–Charlie Parker Plays Bossa
Nova Carnaval Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey and the
stunning title story. Occasionally a narrator who may or
may not be Haruki himself is present as in The Yakult
Swallows Poetry Collection. Is it memoir or fiction? The
reader decides. The stories all touch beautifully on love
and loss childhood and death . . . all with a signature
Murakami twist.