MICHELLE HUNEVEN (author of the novels Jamesland and Round Rock)

I read somewhere that Haruki Murakami swims several hours a day to train for his writing — and, indeed, his remarkable last novel, Kafka on the Shore(Vintage), is like an exhilarating dive into the wild and woolly collective unconscious. At one point, I couldn’t bear to read another word, and, simultaneously, couldn’t bear not to.

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