Kafka on the Shore

Kafka Tamura lives with his father in Tokyo, but at 15 he takes to the road, hoping to locate his mother and his sister, who left when he was four. Meanwhile, an elderly and possibly retarded man named Nakata, who survived a mysterious (and still unexplained) event many years ago, is able to talk to cats. These two story lines converge in Haruki Murakami's seventh novel, a winsomely odd tale full of eccentric characters, surreal details, and unexpected subplots. Named one of the 10 Best Books of 2005 by the New York Times.