“Lady, did you ever see anyone shot by a gun without bleeding?”….

“Who can really distinguish between the sea and what’s reflected in it? Or tell the difference between the falling rain and loneliness?”.

Some of my favorite quotes from the documents: I’ve read these parts twice and I still feel like I would probably discover something new if I read them again. This is a fairly small book, and the parts that really made this book one of my favourites were the documents left behind by Sumire before she went missing and the ending. Sumire could call K at 3 in the morning to ask questions like ‘What is the difference between a sign and a symbol’ and he would still answer sincerely. K and Sumire’s friendship was so beautiful. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?” “Why do people have to be this lonely? What’s the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Love didn’t ‘heal’ them, which realistically it never does. The trend consistently continued even though all the characters were in love with someone. 50 pages into the book, the first thought I had was how lonely these characters were and how it felt like they could stop breathing due to their loneliness any second. But, the thing which is glaringly obvious is how sad this book is.

Since, it’s a Murakami book, this book doesn’t have a definite ending and it also has elements of magical realism in it. The story is from K’s point of view, who is Sumire’s best friend and is also in love with her. Sumire starts a new job as Miu’s assistant, and together they visit a Greek island where Sumire goes missing. The book is about Sumire, an aspiring writer who falls in love with Miu, a woman 17 years older than her.

Murakami sweetheart