HARUKI MURAKAMI

Read through "A Wild Sheep Chase" by Haruki Murakami over the past fortnight. Not a fat book, just about 353 pages, but I found myself reading it slowly, savouring its smart narrative, and an absurd but interesting storyline.

The sheep on a star over its back is certainly a metaphor. And Murakami builds almost a myth out of a man looking for it. What I like about the story is the world-view of the Rat, a writer, who could have been easily turned a rich and powerful man with the sheep inside him, but spurned it. Did he die of his own volition?

Murakami has modernist sensibilities, and can weave story in a very sensitive way.
MRINAL BOSE