Jean-Christophe Deveney

Haruki Murakami's best-loved stories finally in graphic novel form! Haruki Murakami's novels, essays and short stories have sold millions of copies worldwide and been translated into scores of languages. Now for the first time, in this three-volume series, Murakami's best-loved stories are available in manga form in English. With their trademark mix of realism and fantasy, centering around Murakami's signature themes of loss, remorse and confusion. The three stories in this volume are: The Second Bakery Attack: A newlywed couple lie in bed, hungry. The man tells his wife about when he and a friend robbed a bakery and stole bread to feed themselves for two days. On hearing this story, the woman suggests they try the same thing again. " […] exemplifies Murakami's sense of the fragility of the ordinary world." —Kirkus Reviews Samsa in Love: An extension of the tale of Gregor Samsa in Kafka's The Metamorphosis. The main character wakes up to find himself transformed into someone named Samsa, then falls in love with a hunchback woman who comes to fix the lock on his door. "Samsa in Love is part of a lineage, going back to the original publication of The Metamorphosis in 1915 and extending up to (and beyond?) the present day." —Los Angeles Times Thailand: A middle-aged woman takes a break from her job as a doctor to go on holiday in Thailand. She learns from a spirit doctor that her sterile life and inability to forgive have created a rock in her gut, which will be all that remains of her after she is dead. "His characters are so persuasive, and the storytelling so spacious.… Murakami's crisp, accomplished stories…have great immediacy." —The Seattle Times These new graphic versions of classic Murakami short stories will be devoured by his fans and will provide a new window onto his work for a new generation of readers not yet familiar with it! **Recommended for readers ages 16+ due to mature themes and graphic content**

Haruki Murakami's stories in graphic novel form for the first time! Haruki Murakami's novels, essays and short stories have sold millions of copies worldwide and been translated into dozens of languages. Now for the first time, many of Murakami's best-loved short stories are available in graphic novel form in English. Haruki Murakami Manga Stories 1 is the first of three volumes, which will present a total of 9 short stories from Murakami's bestselling collections. With their trademark mix of realism and fantasy, centering around Murakami's characteristic themes of loss, remorse and confusion, the four stories in this volume are: Super-Frog Saves Tokyo: A few days after an earthquake, Katagiri discovers a giant frog in this home. The frog promises to save Tokyo from another earthquake, but Katagiri must help him. Is this real, or is Katagiri dreaming? "[This story has] such an engaging mix of realism and fantasy that it takes a while for you to realize what a sad undertow the story has and how much it says about Katagiri's solitary life, his feelings of powerlessness and his dread of another quake." —The New York Times Where I'm Likely to Find It: A woman's husband goes missing so she hires detective. As the detective traces the man's whereabouts, he reflects on the meaning of his own life. "A searching Kafkaesque parable about disappearance, loss and coping." —Kirkus Reviews Birthday Girl: A woman tells her friend the story of a surreal encounter she has on her twentieth birthday with the owner of the restaurant where she works, who grants her a wish. The Seventh Man: The story of a man scarred by the death of his childhood friend in a tsunami. "Although Murakami's style and deadpan humour are wonderfully distinctive, his emotional territory is more familiar—remorse, unresolved confusion, sudden epiphanies—though heightened by the surreal. In The Seventh Man, one of his saddest stories, the narrator recalls the wave that reared up during a freak storm and engulfed his childhood friend." —The Guardian These new graphic versions of classic Murakami short stories will be devoured by his fans and will provide a new window onto his work for a new generation of readers not yet familiar with it! **Recommended for readers ages 16+ due to mature themes and graphic content**