Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami (2013)

One of five inseparable high-school friends is inexplicably expelled from the group, which changes his life for the next 16 years, when he finally determines to learn the reason for his exclusion.

Book Review:  If E.M. Forster said "Only connect," Haruki Murakami says "How?" In Colorless Tsukuru and His Years of Pilgrimage, Murakami explores the difficult mix of commitment and connection, when broken commitments lead to failed relationships. The eponymous character is insecure from the beginning, seeing himself as "colorless," with "a constant nagging fear" of losing his friends, which when he does his "life was changed forever." The loss affects everything, even his appearance changes. And that is the story of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (Murakami's 13th novel). This, tho written in the third person, is more like Norwegian Wood and Sputnik Sweetheart (than The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle or Kafka on the Shore), but less love-sick, and the romance is told more from a more restrained adult perspective, and is an attempt to change his life. Something like Norwegian Wood grown up. As always, Murakami manages to infuse every page with our hero's struggles, his spiraling emotions, depths and highs, black and white with infinite shades of gray, his thoughts moving between high school and the present day. Tazaki's international quest to learn what happened in his past, and so save his present, is what so forcefully drives this book. Quietly powerful, this is another valuable addition to the Murakami canon (ably translated by Philip Gabriel), with many of his typical tropes and quirks, but also his insights into and descriptions of emotions. Rather than tell more about the novel and risk spoilers, I'll end with this description of the moment when Tazaki is first about to confront his past:

"The sky was covered with a thin layer of clouds, not a patch of blue visible anywhere, though it did   not look like rain. There was no wind, either. The branches of a nearby willow tree were laden with   lush foliage and drooping heavily, almost to the ground, though they were still, as if lost in deep thought. Occasionally a small bird landed unsteadily on a branch, but soon gave up and fluttered away. Like a distraught mind, the branch quivered slightly, then returned to stillness."

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage extends Murakami's reach, and shows us more of what he can do, what he wants to do. [4.5 Stars]