Haruki Murakami: Men Without Women

Supremely enjoyable, philosophical and pitch-perfect new collection of short stories. . . Murakami has a marvellous understanding of youth and age - and the failings of each

Murakami writes of complex things with his usual beguiling simplicity. . . Strangely invigorating to read. . . It is Murakami at his whimsical, romantic best

Calculatedly provocative. . ., the stories offer sweet-sour meditations on human solitude and a yearning to connect. . . Murakami, always inventive, is one of the finest popular writers at work today

Written with all the cats, spaghetti, humor, and gentle surrealism we might expect . . . Men Without Women is a funny, lovely, unmistakably Murakami collection of seven stories about the lives of people trying to find their place in the world and reckoning with their pasts

A disconcertingly funny portrait of modern loneliness

Self-schooled and uncontaminated by writerly edicts, the 68-year-old presents subjects directly on a platter before the reader. . . but stirs up all kinds of themes and truths in the allegorical mud through his gentle, almost conversational style

One of the finest pieces of short-form writing I have enjoyed in many years… If the familiar way of Haruki Murakami are an enthusiasm, there is plenty here to divert the aficionado, but he also takes a turn into riskier territory that could well coax new readers into his distinctive world

Moments of melancholy and humour mix with acute observation in the latest offering by Japan’s master storyteller

A man who starves to death for love, a woman who claims she used to be a lamprey eel, a mysterious whiskey drinker who scares away gangsters – it is the secondary characters who truly come alive in these tales. Peppered with strange women and passive men, unexpected suicides and cats, these vignettes will leave readers questioning, and linger in the mind

A collection like Men Without Women [restores] my faith...in how utterly perfect [short stories] can be... each of the seven stories here… a gem in and of its own right, but strung together they’re a sparkling strand of precious stones, the light refracted from each equally brilliant but the tones varying subtly.