Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage

A novel

By: Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel - translator

Narrated by: Bruce Locke

The new novel - a book that sold more than a million copies the first week it went on sale in Japan - from the internationally acclaimed author, his first since IQ84.

Here he gives us the remarkable story of Tsukuru Tazaki, a young man haunted by a great loss; of dreams and nightmares that have unintended consequences for the world around us; and of a journey into the past that is necessary to mend the present. It is a story of love, friendship, and heartbreak for the ages.

©2014 Haruki Murakami (P)2014 Random House Audio

Vintage Murakami, Unbearable narration

The fake Japanese accents and the fake Finnish one were acid on the ears. I kept hoping for the dialogue to end so the narrator would go back to a normal accent. Story, characters convey the usual sense of wonder and nostalgia we get from Murakami.

Engaging and visual

Even though the story was engaging, some questions left unanswered. However the dreams were depicted flawlessly and the interpretation of them enriched the misery if the story.

Fantastic writing and narration. Yet...

I found this book by my favorite novelist different than his previous: dark, slow, and melancholic in tone. Murakami's prose is unmatched and truly stands on a league of its own. While I loved the narration and the fluid, descriptive prose, I would have wished the plot to develop more. Certain events that initially seemed of great importance got lost within the plot. Not his best work, but definitely better than most of his contemporaries.

Great story with incredible narration

Bruce Locke's performance in the audio reading of this book is just so perfect. The way he animates the characters voices and accents makes it feel so authentic. And his somber contemplative tone just feels right for the book. I really enjoyed it and want to look up more audiobooks performed by him.

Great!

It’s Murakami without the surrealism, which I don’t know if I would have chosen if I knew. But I’m so glad I read it. I’d say this is one of his most beautiful books.

Best novel so far

This is my second novel from Murakami, but between this and Norwegian Wood, I would say this is my favorite. I love the style, as it almost feels as if it’s meant to be a first person narrative, despite being 3rd person.
The narration did throw me off a little bit in the beginning with the accents, but I grew used to it. When the narrator is just telling the story, I found to have really liked it.

Amazing

Loved the book. Great story as usual rider really knows how to engage his audiences. A master writer and recommend all his books.

narrated with Japanese accent?

Why one would choose to narrate this book with a fake Japanese accent truely baffles me.

fantastic book - slightly racist reading.

One of my favourite novels ever; unfortunately, the reader read the characters' dialogue as if they were struggling to speak English. They are Japanese people speaking Japanese. They shouldn't sound like they are struggling to form sentences. It took me out of the sharp dialogue and took me hours to get used to. What I thought would be a cool way to revisit one of the best books I've read became a lesson in patience and I was quite uncomfortable.

Boring novel, terrible reading

This is the worst Murakami novel that I’ve ever read. I admit to being a Murakami fan and have for example read Kafka on the shore four times. That is a wonderful, daring, deep novel. By contrast this is a colorless story and the reading is almost racist. I hate the way the reader did an imitation Japanese accent. Don’t waste your time and money.