First published in 1992 as国境の南、太陽の西(Kokkyō no Minami, Taiyō no Nishi)South of the Border, West of the Sunis the beguiling story of a past rekindled, and one ofHaruki Murakami’smost touching novels.Hajime has arrived at middle age with a loving family & 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, & quietly dazzling, inSouth of the Border, West of the Sunthe simple arc of one man’s life becomes the exquisite literary terrain ofMurakami’sremarkable genius.°°°Born in 1951 in an affluent Tokyo suburb, Hajime—beginning in Japanese—has arrived at middle age wanting for almost nothing. The postwar years have brought him a fine marriage, two daughters, and an enviable career as the proprietor of two jazz clubs. Yet a nagging sense of inauthenticity about his success threatens Hajime’s happiness. And a boyhood memory of a wise, lonely girl named Shimamoto clouds his heart.°°°InSouth of the Border, West of the Sun, the simple arc of a man’s life—with its attendant rhythms of success & disappointment—becomes the exquisite literary terrain ofHaruki Murakami’smost haunting work. When Shimamoto shows up one rainy night, now a breathtaking beauty with a secret from which she is unable to escape, the fault lines of doubt in Hajime’s quotidian existence begin to give way. And the details of stolen moments past & present—a Nat King Cole melody, a face pressed against a window, a handful of ashes drifting downriver to the sea—threaten to undo him completely. Rich, mysterious, quietly dazzling,South of the Border, West of the SunisHaruki Murakami’swisest & most compelling work.