South of the Border, West of the Sun - Haruki Murakami
In post-war Japan, a middle-aged family man and owner of two jazz clubs is dogged by a nagging sense of inauthenticity about his success and a boyhood memory of a wise, lonely girl. When the beautiful Shimamoto shows up one rainy night, the fault lines of doubt in Hajime's quotidian existence begin to give way. \nSouth of the Border, West of the Sun is the beguiling story of a past rekindled, and one of Haruki Murakami's most touching novels. \nHajime has arrived at middle age with a loving family and an enviable career, yet he feels incomplete. When a childhood friend, now a beautiful woman, shows up with a secret from which she is unable to escape, the fault lines of doubt in Hajime's quotidian existence begin to give way. Rich, mysterious, and quietly dazzling, in South of the Border, West of the Sun the simple arc of one man's life becomes the exquisite literary terrain of Murakami's remarkable genius.\n