Kafka on the Shore

'Kafka on the Shore' is powered by two 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 he cannot fathom. As their paths converge, and the reasons for that convergence become clear, Haruki Murakami tries to show readers a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder.