This novel was chosen due to the overt multiplicity it embraces along with clear instances of liminality within the narrative framework. The primary text that the research subjects to a qualitative textual analysis is Kafka on the Shore. The context for the study will be limited to the idea of worlding (a process that can be engaged with by occupying a liminal position) in opposition to the fixed notions of globalisation and tradition. (Jan.The research engages with the notion of liminality as an artistic resistance to dominant, hegemonic constructions that propagate singularity of existence and expression.

But by this point, his readers, like his characters, will go just about anywhere Murakami wants them to, whether they 'get' it or not. Occasionally, the writing drifts too far into metaphysical musings-mind-bending talk of parallel worlds, events occurring outside of time-and things swirl a bit at the end as the author tries, perhaps too hard, to make sense of things.

Murakami likes to blur the boundary between the real and the surreal-we are treated to such oddities as fish raining from the sky a forest-dwelling pair of Imperial Army soldiers who haven't aged since WWII and a hilarious cameo by fried chicken king Colonel Sanders-but he also writes touchingly about love, loneliness and friendship. (A wonderfully endearing character, Nakata has never recovered from the effects of a mysterious World War II incident that left him unable to read or comprehend much, but did give him the power to speak with cats.) What follows is a kind of double odyssey, as Kafka and Nakata are drawn inexorably along their separate but somehow linked paths, groping to understand the roles fate has in store for them.

As Kafka flees, so too does Nakata, an elderly simpleton whose quiet life has been upset by a gruesome murder. In this latest addition to the author's incomparable oeuvre, 15-year-old Kafka Tamura runs away from home, both to escape his father's oedipal prophecy and to find his long-lost mother and sister. Have established Murakami as a true original, a fearless writer possessed of a wildly uninhibited imagination and a legion of fiercely devoted fans. Previous books such as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle